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INCOSE WMA NewsletterMay 2010

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

1 Presidents Word

1-2 INCOSE Technical Operations (TechOps)

1 Upcoming Events

Presidents Word

We are happy to announce that the International

Council on System Engineering has recognized the

Washington Metro Area Chapter as a gold circle

award chapter based upon its contributions and

accomplishments in 2009.

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE WHO MADETHIS POSSIBLE!

Sincerely,

Steven H. Dam

INCOSE WMA President

Upcom ng Events

June

Join us for the first highlight of the engineering

social season! Members and guests are welcome.

Therefore, bring a spouse, significant other orcolleague.

Enter the iPad Raffle

At each of our remaining dinner meetings,

INCOSE WMA will be collecting raffle tickets for

our iPad Raffle at the INCOSE WMA Holiday Party

in December.* There is no cost to enter, and all

attendees will be given a raffle ticket.

*Remember you must attend the December

Holiday Party to win the prize.

INCOSE Technical Operations (TechOps) Standards InitiativeAuthor: Ken Zemrowski, INCOSE Assistant Director for StandardsINCOSE Technical Operations recently recategorized two working groups (WG) into initiatives to reflect the

characteristic that the area of interest spanned many working groups. In this issue, I will describe the

Standards Initiative (the other being Model Based Systems Engineering).Unlike the WGs chartered to develop products and help advance systems engineering knowledge, the

Standards Initiative works with established standards bodies to collaborate on the development of

standards and to ensure the alignment of our Systems Engineering Handbook with key international systems

engineering standards. The April 2010 issue of INCOSE Insight provides an overview of the standards bodies

we work with.continued on page 2

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INCOSE Technical Operations (TechOps)

In this article, I will describe some of the

opportunities for participation available to

INCOSE members. A few INCOSE volunteers serve

as liaisons to specific standards bodies,

participating actively in the development, review,

and balloting of draft standards. In some cases,

our liaisons take on the additional responsibilityof serving as project editor. Although the time

involved in these efforts is voluntary, INCOSE

supports the effort by compensating the liaisons

for travel expenses related to these efforts.Each industry standard has its own set of

requirements established by the formulating

group (organizations external to INCOSE) in

charge of development or upgrade. Our

participants are able to influence the nature ofthe standards by working with the standards

bodies on proposals for new work, as well as

participating through the entire process.Once a draft standard or technical report is

developed, INCOSE has an opportunity to review

the draft. INCOSE judges the standard against the

requirements established for the standard plus

any other unstated requirements INCOSE deems

relevant. For example, on occasion a draft

standard does not contain specific informationthat should belong, according to good practices.

In such a case, INCOSE will provide a comment or

input to the draft standard to this effect.In many cases, the appointed liaisons have

developed a list of reviewers. In some cases, the

scope of a draft standard falls into the area of

interest of an INCOSE WG, so that WG is asked to

review the document. However, any INCOSE

member can serve as a reviewer.

Simply put, standards reviewers must use good

common sense based on their skills and

experience. Standards review does not include a

list of criteria to judge the draft standard, but

rather identifies data that are missing, wrong, or

extraneous. INCOSE is an external liaison to these

responsible organizations and typically has no

vote in the final disposition of a standard. In ISO,

each country has a single vote regardless of size

or power. INCOSE, as liaison, has no vote; only

influence through persuasive argument or active

participation in the international working group

as a full member.In order to ensure a representative viewpoint

during the review, INCOSEs Assistant Director for

Technical Reviews has established procedures for

reviewing all types of INCOSE products, as well as

inputs to standards bodies. We will soon be

calling for volunteers to establish key reviewer

groups for each of our standards body

affiliations. These volunteers will be expected to

review drafts and provide comments to the

liaison for that group. In accordance with theINCOSE technical review procedures, we will also

use a comment disposition team to resolve any

inconsistent recommendations from reviewers

and to ensure that the comments submitted by

INCOSE are consistent with the SE Handbook and

other INCOSE positions. The comment disposition

team will also relieve some of the workload on

the liaisons.The theme of the April issue of INCOSE Insight is

Reflections on the Technical Engine of INCOSE(that is, Technical Operations). Regina Griego,

Technical Director, provides an overview of

TechOps; many Assistant Directors also have

articles describing their areas and some of the

working groups.

For more information on

INCOSE WMA, please visitwww.incose-wma.org

http://www.incose-wma.org/http://www.incose-wma.org/http://www.incose-wma.org/