The awareness and recognition of Systems Engineering (SE) as a formal discipline in India started around the year 2000, though it has been practiced informally since the 1960s. Over the past decade, there has been a rapid increase with multinational corporations (that already practice SE) opening off-shore design centers in India, enforcing SE practices in existing ones, or when outsourcing engineering work to Indian companies. Formation of the INCOSE India chapter in 2010 and its growth since then has both contributed to and benefited from these trends.
Systems Engineering focused events organized in India, including two instances of the Asia Oceania Systems Engineering Conference (AOSEC) in 2016 and 2019, provided some insights into SE related practice in India. However, a bigger picture of SE in India was largely missing; and any available information was informal, anecdotal, or concentrated. With this background, there was need to gain a better understanding of SE in India, so that the growth, development, and adoption of the discipline can be observed holistically and supported effectively. This led to the launching of the first “State of Systems Engineering in India” survey, with the following objectives:
# To establish the current state of SE in India
# To create a baseline to observe changes in this state over time (annually or biennially)
# To gather SE related trends, expectations, challenges, and best practices of SE practitioners and stakeholders in India
# To identify opportunities to support the growth of the SE discipline in India
# To share findings with INCOSE at large and the global SE community
There were only two criteria for participation: the respondent must be aware of SE and must be based in India. The survey was designed with a set of common questions to capture general demographics of the respondents. These include their familiarity with SE, whether they considered themselves to be systems engineers, where they first heard about SE, major SE events they have attended recently, and if they wish to become an INCOSE certified SE professional (if they are not already one).
Subsequently, questions were presented under four categories, and respondents got to choose one category that matches their current position and then answer questions under that category. The categories were identified to best represent the SE-aware population in India:
1. WORKING PROFESSIONALS
They were expected to form the majority of the respondents, who would be actively practicing SE or interacting with those who perform SE. They are expected to represent a wide variety of domains, industries, and organizations. Survey questions were designed to capture their responses on various aspects including their designations, educational qualifications, maturity of various SE areas that are being practiced in their organizational unit, SE activities they perform on a daily basis, SE topics they wish to know about, how SE can help in their current role, challenges they face while implementing SE, and what could be done to promote SE at their workplace and across India.
2. STUDENTS
Though there are no Bachelors or Masters programs in India that offer a major in SE, awareness within academia is on the rise. Hence, students pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees were expected to participate in this survey. Survey questions were designed to capture their responses on various aspects including details about their education, years of work experience between their Bachelors and Masters degrees (if applicable), SE related courses they have taken, SE related talks/presentations/seminars at their institution, applying an SE approach to their thesis/project, their interest in establishing an INCOSE Student Division, target institutions for any Master or PhD degrees they wish to pursue, SE topics they wish to know more about, and how they would like to contribute to the promotion of SE in India.
3. FACULTY/RESEARCHER
Though formal programs in SE are yet to be offered in educational institutions, there are some SE related courses that are being offered, and a few faculty members are known to conduct SE related research or project activities. In an attempt to gather insights from them, survey questions were designed to capture their responses on various aspects including their educational background, courses they teach, their current research projects, SE related events at their institution, SE topics of interest for conducting research, establishing an INCOSE Student Division, and promotion of SE in India.
4. RETIRED PROFESSIONALS
This category forms a critical part of SE in India particularly in the aerospace / defense industry, since many of those who were instrumental in introducing and promoting SE in the early 2000s have now retired. In India, the retirement age is fixed by the organization. So, after retirement, only some remain engaged in an advisory role, and a few choose to teach. Survey questions were designed to capture their responses on various aspects including their last official designation, their educational background, SE efforts they have led/initiated/engaged in at their organization, ways to improve the level of SE awareness and adoption in their former organization, and how they would like to contribute to the promotion of SE in India at large.
Survey invitations were sent via email to all INCOSE India Chapter members, participants of recent SE events (conferences, webinars, etc.), leaders of SE-aware organizations, and professional contacts of the survey investigators. Including some overlaps, survey invitations were sent to about 750 individuals, and responses were received from 122 respondents at the time of closing the survey.
The survey was closed on 31-Jan-2022 and detailed analysis of the survey responses is ongoing. Insights based on responses the many survey questions will be included in the presentation during IS2022.