Review: The INCOSE SE Handbook

Summary: The INCOSE SE Manual is the standard work for certification as a Systems Engineer. It is based on ISO standard 15288 and is available in German and English. Version 4 has not only been revised in terms of content: It is also the first time that the company has worked with a specialist publisher (Wiley), which has significantly improved the appearance compared to version 3. Update: Version 5 of the book is now available.

Target group: Systems Engineers; mandatory reading for people who want to acquire the SE-ZERT (German) or CSEP (English) and thus become certified Systems Engineers; valuable reference work

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Very high quality content, but not the most exciting read. The structure could be better, as valuable information sometimes appears in unexpected places.

Acquire: GfSE members can obtain the handbook free of charge as a PDF, as well as the print version with a discount of 55%. Non-members can purchase the handbook from bookshops.

Conclusion: Anyone working in the field of systems engineering cannot avoid the INCOSE SE handbook. As a reminder: INCOSE is the "International Council on Systems Engineering". The German chapter is the "Gesellschaft für Systems Engineering" (GfSE). The Systems Engineering Handbook (SE Handbook) has been around for many years and forms the basis for certification as a Systems Engineering Professional (SEP).

The INCOSE Handbook: ISO 15288 at your fingertips

The INCOSE manual is based on the ISO standard 15288. This is an international standard on the life cycle of systems. The standard deals with the objective, evaluation and improvement of processes. The standard is updated regularly and therefore the year is included in the standard. The official designation of the last three versions is ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2008, ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 and ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2023It is easy to see why the manual has been revised: The 4-book is based on the 2015 version of the standard.

Absolute worth reading is the almost 20-page introduction (chapter 2), as well as the following chapter 3 on generic lifecycles (30 pages). Here you will find interesting facts, case studies and anecdotes that are also worth reading for experienced systems engineers.

Then it's time to get down to business: Chapters 4-8 deal with the various Processes from the ISO standard. These chapters are intended as a reference and are very useful as such. In contrast to the ISO standard, the processes have been divided into four subgroups. This also definitely contributes to understanding.

There is a lot of great information hidden in this section, but it is easy to overlook. To give just one small example: The question often arises as to the order in which activities should be carried out, for example integration before verification, and this in turn before validation. There is an interesting comment on this in 4.9.2.3. Even if information is relatively easy to find thanks to the many sub-headings, only an intensive study of the book will help you to utilize its full value. There are no shortcuts.

Tailoring, methods and more

The process chapters are followed by three chapters on the following topics Tailoring (Adaptation of processes, chapter 8), Methods (Chapter 9) and Special activities (Specialty Engineering Activities, Chapter 10). There is also a lot of knowledge here, especially in the last two.

In Chapter 9 important current methodological topics such as MBSE, interface management and agile SE are presented alongside many other methods. It is a shame that each topic is only touched on in a few pages. On the other hand, this would also go beyond the scope of the book.

In Chapter 10 activities are presented that don't fit anywhere else - at least that's how it seems to me. However, the introduction to the chapter presents these as "important expert fields", which otherwise have no further connection (and are therefore also sorted alphabetically). The topics range from safety and security to electromagnetic compatibility.

The book is rounded off with a number of useful appendices and an index.

Conclusion

The SE manual is a solid textbook that has improved significantly compared to the previous version. As a standard work, no systems engineer should be without it. However, the material is taught in a rather dry manner, and there is certainly room for improvement in terms of structure and didactics. Hence three stars.