Systems Engineering & Project Management

Current Status

The Systems Engineering and Project Management (SEPM) Joint Working Group is currently dormant whilst the next phase of collaborative SEPM topics and workstreams is decided as part of the next iteration of the business plan cycle. Meanwhile the site remains available to interested members in order to access the past publications and working reference artefacts.

Background

The history of the SE-PM Joint Working Group is a collaboration between INCOSE UK and the Association for Project Management (APM) and was established after a joint workshop held in January 2013. The joint workshop was hosted by the APM Chairman Mike Nichols and the INCOSE UK Past President Mike Wilkinson and as a result, it was decided to create a Joint Working Group to explore how the two organisations could work together in order to:

• Help Project Managers understand and appreciate Systems Engineering
• Help Systems Engineers understand and appreciate Project Management
• Help both PMs and SEs think systemically when working on projects

An inaugural kick-off meeting of the JWG was held in July 2013 where the aims and objectives of the working group were discussed, individual workstreams were identified and the governance of the JWG was established. 

Aims and Objectives

The SEPM joint working group aims and objectives are as follows:

• Aim - To develop and promote good practice and guidance dovetailing SE and PM and promote systems thinking across the wider decision making community in the UK (and to influence developments internationally) in order to support the improved delivery of complex projects and avoid common pitfalls.
• Objectives:

• To set out the benefits of better ways of working between SE and PM through a well thought out and compelling value proposition
• To provide practical advice and guidance on how SE and PM can work better together throughout the project lifecycle identifying roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders, the competences that they require to fulfil those roles and what shared culture and behaviours they will need to adopt
• To communicate the benefits of improved working between SE and PM through the production of guidance material, education and training and the use of practical case studies from real world examples
• To promote the benefits of systems thinking across the PM, SE and wider decision making community.

Workstreams

The work of the SEPM JWG was based around the following 8 workstreams:

For further information on the workstream objectives and outputs please see the SEPM JWG Aims and Objectives document in the Other Documents section of this website.

Approach

The work was carried out using:

• Quarterly steering group meetings
• Ad hoc meetings, workshops telephone conferences by the individual workstreams
• Interaction via the SEPM JWG Project place website

For further information on the approach and the schedule please see the SEPM JWG Aims and Objectives document in the Other Documents section of this website.

Further Information

If you would like further information or would like to participate in the next phase of the SEPM JWG, please contact the site administrator via the INCOSE UK Secretariat.