Benchmarking the Naval Systems Engineering Guide against Industry Standards

Abstract

The Naval Systems Engineering Guide (NESG) was written in 2004 by representatives from NAVSEA, NAVFAC, NAVAIR, NAVSUP and MARCORSYSCOM. Since then, three other foundational systems engineering documents have been written or revised the International Standards Organization (ISO) Standard 15288 in 2008, the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Systems Engineering Handbook in 2011, and The guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) in 2012. This thesis compares the treatment of one life cycle element, in-service engineering, across all four documents, in order to offer a comparative analysis of the NESG in light of key industry standards and make recommendations for the revision of the NESG. The gap analysis performed in relation to crucial industry documents suggests that future revisions of the NSEG should include substantial discussion of Operations, Maintenance, Service Life Extension and Disposal Processes, as well as identify best practices for each process.