Citation (IEEE): International Council on Systems Engineering, Systems Engineering Handbook, Version 2a. Seattle, WA, USA: INCOSE, 2004.
What it argues
The professional society’s guide to systems engineering practice. It describes the technical, project and agreement processes that carry a system from stakeholder needs through requirements, architecture, integration, verification, validation and operation. It also covers supporting disciplines such as risk, configuration and interface management, and its appendices collect practical techniques and examples. Later editions align the processes with the ISO/IEC 15288 life-cycle standard.