Evolving the INCOSE reference curriculum for a graduate program in systems engineering

This paper suggests an evolution to the graduate level systems engineering curriculum framework documented in an International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) report in October of 2007 [Jain and Verma, INCOSE-PP-2007-001-01, Seattle, WA, 2007]. This evolution leverages the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 15288 Systems and Software Engineering—System Life Cycle Processes standard [ISO/IEC 15288, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 2008] as a guide. The evolved framework is presented and consists of six levels of course categories: prerequisite, introductory, technical system life cycle processes, project planning system life cycle processes, infrastructure processes and other broad areas, and capstone courses. Next, 18 systems engineering centric online masters degrees offered by 17 distinct universities are identified as part of a growing base of graduate level systems engineering degrees offered globally through distance education. Specific examples for applying the framework using three of the universities that provide online systems engineering masters programs globally are included. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 13: 381–388, 2010