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David Ward

TMC Europe

Additional Speakers

Victor Bertolazzo

Lily Cutaia

SEP Certification and the ISO/IEC 24773: Distinct Paths, Complementary Frameworks for Enterprises and their Practitioners

Bio.

David Ward joined TMC in 2020. He is an INCOSE ESEP and works as a SE Professional and Evangelist with over 100+ publications, including 4 book chapters covering topics from Engineering to Luxury Products and more recently, two books on Systems Engineering with Alessandro Pinzauti. By trade he is a Mechanical Engineer with a PhD in fluid Mechanics. From 2020-2021 he was the INCOSE AISE vice-president and is currently AISE Director for Training. He is also member of the Certification Advisory Group for INCOSE. In 2019 he set-up the AISE Interest Group for Systems Thinking and Design Thinking. He was also AISE’s PoC for INCOSE’s 2035 Vision and reviewer for INCOSE Handbook V5.0. His recent endeavours include: • SySTEAM in technical colleges in Italy; • Ideator and trainer of the TMC SEPD programs; • SE and SEP certification trainer; • Author of TMC SE guides and SED talks; • Ideator of the TMC SE and SEP clinic; • SE Project work in diverse fields from surgical robots to railways, from systems architecture to SE process tailoring.

Abstract.

As modern systems increase in complexity, establishing and validating the competence of systems engineering (SE) and software engineering (SWE) professionals has become paramount. This paper evaluates the structural relationship between the internationally recognized INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional (SEP) certification program and the ISO/IEC 24773 multi-part standards series. Anchored by the conformity assessment framework of ISO/IEC 17024, the ISO/IEC 24773 series establish comprehensive requirements for professional certification schemes.
This brief study contrasts institutionalized, generalist and regional certification models (such as INCOSE SEP, SE-ZERT®) against customized, in-house programs derived from the 24773 frameworks. It examines key factors including cost-effectiveness, domain-specific tailoring, standardization, and organizational agility. Furthermore, the paper investigates critical contemporary gaps underrepresented in current standards, such as the fragmentation of engineering data landscapes, micro-credentials, and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI). Ultimately, a strategic roadmap is provided for organizations determining whether to adopt a globalized certification paradigm or cultivate proprietary, standard-compliant educational and training tracks