If You Want Good Systems Engineers, Sometimes You Have To Grow Your Own!

Abstract

Given the ever increasing number, scope and complexity of systems today, it is vital to have a cadre of highly trained and skilled systems engineers to ensure that those systems are developed and operated successfully. But from where will those systems engineers come? The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has come to the conclusion that if you want them, sometimes you have to grow your own.The JPL Systems Engineering Advancement (SEA) project was launched in FY2004 to advance the practice of systems engineering at JPL, and to address the three key aspects of change: people, process and technology. A significant major portion of the People component of the SEA Project is devoted to a systems engineering on-the-job training (OJT) program. The SEA OJT program will train 50 systems engineers over a five year period according to a threepronged systems engineering competency model. This competency model includes technical domain knowledge, understanding of systems engineering standards, processes and practices, and highly valued behavioral attributes. The behavioral attributes fall into four broad categories: leadership, communication, problem solving and systems thinking, and attitudes and attributes.The SEA Project wrestled with determining the best way to train potential systems engineers along each axis of the competency model, especially how best to inculcate the behavioral attributes. Ultimately, they determined a range of activities that would accomplish their objectives. This mix includes classroom training, hands-on project experience, mentoring and coaching, shadowing, 360 degree feedback, and attending conferences and workshops. This paper 1, 2 provides an overview of the JPL SEA OJT Program including the candidate selection criteria, selection process, training approach and activities, and lessons learned.

Conceptualization of a T‐Shaped engineering competency model in collaborative organizational settings: Problem and status in the Spanish aircraft industry

“…Fourth, a conclusion activity was required for consolidating the survey results, helping to produce a clearer structure and obtaining the so‐called Theoretical T‐Shaped model. Finally, this theoretical model was built by populating its different layers with 73 competencies that were selected from existing competency models and competency studies in systems engineering . Input and output of each activity were interconnected and mutually dependent as shown in Figure .…”

“…Several organizations in government, academia, and industry have worked on improving existing systems engineering competency models being remarkable the recent important project called HELIX in the United States to investigate the essence of systems engineers examining what makes them effective and why. This project also provided insights into how individuals can develop it throughout their careers and developed useful tools to be used by individuals or organizations to support self‐assessment .…”

New Management Approaches for Increasing the Competitiveness in Mechanical Engineering Industry

“…The Systems Engineering Competency Model -a model that includes technical knowledge, process knowledge and personal behaviour axis -was developed in order to identify and enhance the next generation's competency of system engineers. The coaching was mentioned in a range of activities to accomplish the objectives: "This mix includes classroom training, hands-on project experience, mentoring and coaching, shadowing, 360 degree feedback, and attending conferences and workshops" [5].…”

A maturity model for the deployment of Systems Engineering processes

“…Then we analysed existing contributions applicable for the deployment. Firstly, we looked at work done about SE to know what should be deployed [14][15][16], what skills are required [17][18][19], and what the existing published deployment methods are [1][2][3]. We also examined publications about the new tendency of SE, model-based SE [20], to include them in our work.…”