A vision to host INCOSE international events in South Africa was met with some scepticism at the 2009 INCOSE International Symposium in Singapore (IS2009). Undeterred, the vision was pursued with determination, resulting in the INCOSE SA Chapter hosting the first ever EMEA Systems Engineering Conference on the African continent in Somerset West in …

For over ten years, the systems engineering community has focused on transforming from document-centric to model-based techniques. But the challenge is not to transform systems engineering. The challenge is to transform the holistic engineering lifecycle. How must we evolve model-based systems engineering to enable the digital future? For 25 years,…

The Specification Tree is a well-known artefact for system engineering; but for many purposes its resolution is not nearly fine-grained enough. The Requirement Tree has the resolution of individual requirements and individual characteristics, and proves to be a very useful artefact as will be discussed. Ad Sparius holds a BSc BEng (Electronic Engin…

The talk will showcase a collection of peer-reviewed articles by promising young scientists and their academic mentors. The research is contextualized by South Africa’s multi-year investment framework in research and capacity development for systems analysis through the NRF and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). This seminal publicatio…

The current draft version of South Africa's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2016 Draft) plans for a renewable energy share in domestic electricity production of 18% by 2030, 26% by 2040 and keeps that share constant at 26% until 2050. The plan limits the amount of renewables that can be built in any given year and therefore arrives at these relativel…

What is Agile really? Is waterfall really bad, and if so why? How does one makes sense of all the buzz words thrown about in today’s software development environment. Hanno Retief will present a comprehensive comparison of the most commonly used models, characteristics, their benefits and when to apply which. Over the past decade, Hanno has held mu…

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be a powerful aid in effectively managing projects, but it is also easily misunderstood and misapplied. Issues to be considered include: why WBS must not be just a breakdown of work, essential principles in adopting WBS as a management tool, failsafe rules for constructing effective WBS, relationships to other str…

The development of an organization is a complex process: as a continuously changing organism, it is confined to a structure created in a continuously changing environment. This talk aims to give a broad and philosophical overview of the essential aspects of such an organism: the environment (legalities, paradigms and algorithms); the people in the …

Despite technological advances seen in the past decades, several best practices for developing usable user interfaces are still too seldom being applied. Yet, the user interface of a software system is often its most complex and volatile component, where most of the problems in the end converge. While agile approaches aim at delivering often high q…

For almost ten years, the systems engineering community has been focused on the transformation from document-centric to model-based techniques. While most systems engineering organizations have completed pilot efforts, established appropriate communities of practice, and are plotting their path forward, this transformation is far from complete. In …

Often portrayed as separate items, requiring separate disciplines, Systems Engineering, Innovation and Leadership should really be viewed as a “merging” of interrelated parts, making something greater than the sum of these three together. This talk will relate experiences and findings by dr , working across diverse countries and industries and show…

INCOSE Western Cape Year End Function: Chantell Ilbury is an independent scenario strategist, facilitator, speaker and top-selling business author. She specialises in guiding organisations through strategic conversations, especially in times of uncertainty. Chantell holds a BSc in Chemistry, a post-graduate Higher Diploma in Education, an Executive…

ISO/IEC 15288 – "Systems and Software Engineering - System Life Cycle Processes" has had a chequered history. Does the release on 15 May 2015 of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 mark the commencement of a new era? Robert believes so. The importance of the release of this new version of the standard cannot be overstated, forming, as it does, the foundation o…

Prof. Alan Brent – "Using System Dynamics to investigate transition and investment scenarios: The Western Cape Green Economy Model (WeCaGEM)" Transitioning to a green economy presents opportunities and challenges for not only national governments, but also provincial and local governments. Within the South African context, a green economy transitio…

Industrial Symbiosis is the collaboration between organisations to achieve resource efficiency, with particular focus on material and energy exchange. IS has evolved over the years in terms of scale and types of exchanges; however the motivation for the implementation of an IS approach by companies is the (typically mutual) benefits derived through…

Why Systems Engineering …? Presented by Gerhard Swart. Gerhard is a multi-disciplinary Systems Engineer and Technology Strategist, consulting from his company Alphadot (Pty) Ltd. Alphadot helps customers achieve the profitable commercialisation of products based on high-impact local technologies, particularly in the fields of Renewable Energy and E…

South Africa's Energy Outlook - Presented by Kobus Meiring. Kobus was born in Paarl, matriculated at Paarl Boys High and graduated at the University of Stellenbosch as a mechanical engineer. He started his career at Denel Aviation in 1988 and was appointed Rooivalk Programme Manager in 1997, a position he held until the first aircraft was delivered…

Systems Engineering in Turbulent Times. Presented by David Long. For over twenty years, David Long has focused on enabling, applying, and advancing model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to help transform the state of the systems engineering practice. David is the founder and president of Vitech Corporation where he developed CORE®, a leading syste…

The integration of Design Thinking and System Thinking. Presented by Richard Perez (Program Director World Design Capital 2014) INCOSE Introduction — PDF (1.4 MB) · Presentation Slides — PDF (4.2 MB)By INCOSE SA

INCOSE Certification and the Systems Engineering Handbook. Presented by Francois Retief. What is the value of INCOSE Certification? What are the various certification types and what are their requirements? What processes do I need to follow to become certified? What experience do I need and what can I expect in the exam? What is the Systems Enginee…

Suja Joseph-Malherbe gives feedback of the INCOSE International Workshop that was held in Los Angeles, California between 25 – 28 January 2014 Presentation Slides — PDF (3.9 MB)By INCOSE SA

Requirements traceability and the issues that surround it will be discussed. What precisely is meant with traceability? What needs to trace to what? The life cycle of a requirement. Is there a difference between elicitation traceability and requirement traceability? Tree-up tracing versus tree-down tracing. What objective evidence proves traceabili…

Wits TCSE: Systems Engineering training and education in context of a major South African Soc: Transnet and its LTPF and Market Demand Strategy (MDS). Presented by Rudolph Louw. Presentation Slides — PDF (4.0 MB)By INCOSE SA

Achieving the Extraordinary with Ordinary people - Presented by Prof Eugene Cloete, Vice-Rector, Stellenbosch UniversityBy INCOSE SA

Why the leading technology-based enterprises of the world embrace Systems Engineering as a set of principles and methods. - Presented by Robert Halligan. (Note that only the last part of the audio presentation is available.) Presentation Slides — PDF (6.2 MB)By INCOSE SA