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This paper discusses the need for competent systems engineers, the differences between nine current ways of assessing competencies (competency models) and the difficulty of comparing the competency models due to the different ways each model groups the competencies. The paper then introduces a competency model maturity framework (CMMF) for benchmarking competency models of systems engineers. The paper benchmarks the nine models using the CMMF and a surprising finding was an error of omission in all nine models. The paper shows that the CMMF can also be used as the basis for developing an original model for a specific organization in a specific time and place and concludes with suggestions for future research.

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Systems engineering is presently demonstrating the characteristics of being in the emerging stages of a discipline. A discipline generally matures when an overriding axiom is presented and accepted by the majority of practitioners. This paper presents one such high level underpinning axiom for systems engineering that has the potential to unite the disparate camps within systems engineering and enable the practice of systems engineering in all application domains to achieve successes similar to those it achieved in the National Aeronautical and Aerospace (NASA) environment in the 1960's and 1970's. The axiom does this by focusing on the solution system rather than on systems engineering.