On March 4 John O. Clark, a Chief Engineer in the Information Systems Sector of Northrop Grumman made a presentation to the Southern California Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN). Mr. Clark’s presentation was entitled “System of Systems Engineering and Family of Systems Engineering From a Standards, V-Model, and Dual-V Model Perspective.”

The abstract for Mr. Clark’s presentation explained that System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) and Family of Systems Engineering (FoSE) continue to be two of the least well-understood systems engineering disciplines. Knowledge of the systems engineering standards, the V-Model, and particularly the 3-dimensional Dual-V Model, significantly aids this understanding, including the relationship between systems engineering, SoSE, and FoSE.

The goals of this presentation were to:

1. define SoS, SoSE, and FoSE from a systems engineering standards perspective;
2. describe the original V-Model and the Dual-V Model;
3. show how to apply the SE standards, V-Model, and Dual-V Model to a system, to SoSs, and to FoSs; and
4. encourage and challenge the participants to understand, select, tailor, and apply the SE standards, V-Model, and Dual-V model to complex SoSs and FoSs.

Individuals may have an understanding of portions of SE, SoSE, and FoSE based on other sources. The SE standards, the V-Model, and the Dual-V Model, provide a more complete and common understanding.

Mr. Clark is located at the Warfare Systems Engineering Department in Virginia Beach, VA. He currently supports the Information Systems Sector Directors of Process Management and Human Resources. He led the development of and is the lead instructor for the INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) course, and is both an INCOSE CSEP and qualified to be a Certification Application Reviewer (CAR). John has over 42 years experience applying systems engineering and software engineering to the acquisition, development, verification, testing, operations, and support of military command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, radar, sonar, electronic warfare, identification, weapon, network, scientific, and information systems. He is an active member of several Northrop Grumman Corporate Systems Engineering Advisory Group (SEAG) Working Groups and Communities of Practice; the Director of Education and Training of the INCOSE Hampton Roads Area Chapter. Mr. Clark is a member of the review team for the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook. John received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York. He is an adjunct instructor in the MSSE curriculum at Old Dominion University and will be an instructor in SE at Rutgers University in 2009.