INCOSE-CC response to COVID-19 pandemic crisis
by Mark R. Evans, ASEP, President-2020 INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter
To All INCOSE Chesapeake Chapter members, their families and the system engineering community at large: We want to communicate our plans and talk to you about some upcoming impacts we see happening during this COVID-19 pandemic crisis. During this period, critical health information on how to remain safe and how to respond to a sickness in the event of an infection are our best assets. And sharing planning information about developments, progress and the status of events that may affect our lives is the second-best set of needed information you can have.
First and foremost: we, the Chesapeake Board of Directors encourage and hope that everyone is looking out for their own safety and that of your families as the priority. The board’s first concern is for keeping people safe and socially distanced for their own well-being. To that end, we have canceled all our dinner meetings, face-to-face presentations and in-person events for March and April, consistent with the State of Maryland guidelines. Maryland’s March 30, 2020 stay at home order has an unspecified, open-end date, so we will continue to stay adaptable. The State of Maryland is a trusted authority and provides regular updates and recommendations. We are fortunate to live in a state with an early crisis response and some relatively good results to date. As such, I urge everyone to continue to follow the recommended policy and precautions from both the State of Maryland and the CDC.
We realize that the main way INCOSE promotes the health and professional advancement of systems engineering is largely through social networking and social interaction, but we also strongly believe in putting things on hold wherever that social interaction would jeopardize everyone’s health and safety. We are actively exploring alternative, virtual methods to continue some Chapter functions. The Spring tutoring courses for the SEP exam are on hold; however, we are still hoping to hold the Annual SEP Gala celebration in August pending the circumstances of the next three months. We will use our website, e-mails and newsletters to keep everyone informed of a very fluid event calendar.
Second, as responsible citizens, and as engineers wanting to make a difference, we recommend trying to stay effective in your engineering jobs as best you can, especially if your job allows and you are able to perform in a work-at-home status. Our Chesapeake Board tried a pilot board meeting using Zoom and it worked quite well. We have switched over to virtual meetings and conference calls using www.zoom.us. It’s an adjustment, but it has the advantage of letting us continue semi-normal operations. There are undoubtedly more ways we can model alternative ways to connect people and hold the meetings we need to have in order to minimize this huge disruption.
And the third consideration: are there opportunities out there where any of our SEs can add value in dealing with this crisis? Model Based Systems Engineering undoubtedly has methods and applications that could be put to valuable use. Since the CDC, WHO, and Johns Hopkins data centers are already modeling and reporting data that characterizes the public health crisis, we may be too late to add in the near term. But, the SE discipline itself certainly can add, so what can we do to help? Rebuilding infrastructure, and restarting the economy after this is all over, is a job ready made for some systems engineering help. Possibly, some Systems Engineering process or Program Management discipline would benefit this crisis at a lot of different Government management levels, but it may not be that easy for SEs to go to FEMA or a state government for instance to volunteer strategic planning services.
Update from INCOSE International:
INCOSE President Kerry Lunney has several messages on the incose.org site.... they are good, positive discussions about being good citizens. She also explains some guidelines for INCOSE activities during the Covid-19 crisis.
INCOSE is prohibiting all INCOSE related meetings and external INCOSE representation requiring air travel, whether domestic or international, without approval from the INCOSE Officers until 31 May 2020, at which time this restriction will be reviewed.
INCOSE highly discourages any INCOSE related face-to-face meeting and the decision to hold such a meeting is at the sole discretion of the INCOSE meeting organizer.
INCOSE encourages you to consider alternative means of communication available such as conference calling.
Social distancing and good hygiene practices are to be employed where practical. (Note: This is now Maryland, Virginia, DC government ordered)
Any external INCOSE representation in support of another organization’s face-to-face meeting is at the individual member’s discretion. (Note: This is no longer discretionary—it’s superseded by Maryland, Virginia, DC government lock down directives)
Update from INCOSE on the International Symposium:
At present, the South African government has placed restrictions on travel and gatherings until further notice, which can prevent us holding IS 2020, July 2020 in Cape Town. However, from further discussions these restrictions may or may not continue past May. It is a very fluid situation. INCOSE is continuing to plan the event taking into consideration: –
The possibility of virtual participation for some sessions,
A smaller scale conference with greater outreach post conference date,
Additional hygiene services at the event,
The possibility of delaying the event,
Exploring options to publish finalized papers in various online proceedings.
We are mindful of making decisions on all upcoming INCOSE events
Once again, the well-being of our members is our highest priority. We will continue to closely follow the recommended health and safety precautions. And, we will keep you updated on a regular basis during this very fluid period of unknowns.
Keep well, keep safe, take care of your families.