What is the INCOSE Vision 2025, and will it be fulfilled?

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) is a non-profit organization that operates worldwide. Five years ago, the "Vision 2025" was published, in which several trends in systems engineering were predicted. The document has now reached the halfway point.

To what extent does Vision 2025 seem to have predicted the right direction? And how far along is the implementation? This is the subject of the following article.

Vision 2025 - what it says

First: The report itself is well worth reading and can be downloaded free of charge from the INCOSE website. The report is divided into three parts:

• The Global Context for Systems Engineering - Part 1 deals with today's world and global trends. Current topics such as networking, increasing complexity and environmental impact are explained here.
• The Current State of Systems Engineering - Part 2 describes where systems engineering stands today and where the challenges are seen today.
• The Future State of Systems Engineering - Part 3 is the most interesting, as several predictions are made here, which we will now take a closer look at.

What will change in the application of SE

Broader and regulated application - When Vision 2025 was written, SE was an issue in comparatively few industries. In aerospace and aviation, of course, SE has been used for decades, but in others, such as vehicle development, only comparatively recently. It is predicted that SE will be much more widely recognized as an important discipline. Legislators are also taking action and prescribing SE practices.

Status today - Many companies are struggling with increasing complexity and are looking for solutions. However, this does not mean that SE is recognized or implemented as a solution. Instead, I see many attempts to make existing processes and methods more efficient. In some areas, the legislator is indeed providing the right impetus. However, this tends to be the exception and follows industrial practices that have proven themselves, such as in aviation or vehicle development. The legislator often leaves a rather headless or opportunistic impression.

The transformation of systems engineering

Mastering complexity with different tactics - Complexity is one of the most important trends, and this must be made manageable. The vision sees the interplay of several approaches here: On the one hand, we will learn to deal with complexity systematically. On the other hand, the tools will support users through a high level of integration, networking and intelligence. As the teams are correspondingly large, effective collaboration is also essential. On the other hand, customers demand networked systems (Keyword IoT), which requires corresponding architectures. However, this also requires a rethink in the area of safety (both functional safety and security). Formal system modeling is identified here as a solution approach and trend.

Status today - Oh dear, there is still a lot to do! For example, I am following the development of SysML 2.0 with interest, but it will be years before the standard is adopted and even longer before there are modern tools that correspond to this vision. Large companies such as IBM, Siemens Dassault or ANSYS promise solutions, but these are often based on decades-old technology and have been thrown together through acquisitions. There is still a lot of catching up to do here

Systems Engineering Basics & Training

A solid theoretical foundation - Systems engineering practices are adapted to the theoretical findings and also include non-technical topics.

Status today - We are on the right track here. Not least because of standardized certification, significantly driven by INCOSEa good basis is created here. Also Universities are increasingly offering SE training, and the private sector is also providing pragmatic support here, as the Systems Engineering Leadership studieswhich is offered by oose and Campus02.

Conclusion

Vision 2025 is an exciting and informative document that is well worth reading. As is often the case with such documents, the aim is of course to have a significant influence on the future. Business and educational institutions should be motivated to act. Accordingly, some topics have also been addressed, in particular the area of research and further education. However, there is still a need to catch up in other areas. I very much doubt whether the transformation of systems engineering will be complete in five years' time.

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