The Purposeful Evolution of Systems Engineering Heuristics Using I-SHARE

A heuristic relates to a formulation based on experts' experience, which draws on observed common patterns and serves as a guide in investigating or solving a problem. A transdisciplinary field, systems engineering involves many useful heuristics, as it integrates the gamut of engineering disciplines in defining a system throughout its lifecycle. To be usable, heuristics should be memorable and pithy, and the consequences of applying them should be predictable. To be predictable, a heuristic should provide insights into how and why it works in a particular context. The first step to increase the capability of systems engineering heuristics was the creation of the I-SHARE–INCOSE Systems Heuristics Application Repository, a curated knowledge base of over 600 systems engineering-related heuristics covering systems engineering competencies, lifecycle stages, expertise, operational domains, system attributes, and more. Here, we describe a process for guiding the systems engineering community on how to validate, test, and assess heuristics, and how the systems engineering community can engage with I-SHARE to benefit from the heuristics in it and collectively improve their capabilities.