ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book

—Edward Gibbon

As with all my work, none of it could be possible without the help of many people.

We had lots of help with carrying out the competency assessments, with many people being prepared to let them loose either on themselves or their staff. A big thanks to Alan in Cardiff and his staff who we assessed and subsequently published with – it was a pleasure to work with you! The usual suspects from Aldermaston also deserve a lot of thanks, including Duncan, Jon, Nicky and Keith. Extra thanks go to P3mby who, as usual, went the extra mile and produced some lovely additional work for us – if only they gave out Doctorates for spreadsheets! All the good folk at Abbey Wood should be thanked, including Dave, all of his staff and the many assessees. In terms of helping us perform many, many assessments, special thanks go to Rick, Emma, Tony and Dave from Shrivenham who helped us put the process through the wringer and refine it into what we have today. In terms of innovation, dedication and the sheer volume of work done to tailor the whole approach, we must thank Sylvia who did more for the process and its application than she could ever know. It’s Sylvia’s work that gave us the confidence that we could apply the approach in just about any area imaginable and for this, we take our collective hats off to you.

Thanks to all the good folk at the now-no-longer Brass Bullet Ltd and, more recently, all my new colleagues at Atego. Special thanks to Simon and Mikey B – I am blessed to still be working with both of them after all these years, and look forward to many more.

Of course, thanks as ever go to Mike and Sue. I continue to be inspired by both of them and have learned recently from Sue that ‘it’s never too late’ to keep striving for self-improvement in life.

Finally, all my love and thanks to my beautiful wife, Rebecca, my three (generally) wonderful children, Jude, Eliza and Roo, and my two cats Olive-the-Wondercat and Betty-Moose Davies.

Jon Holt, January 2011

As Jon has said, this book would not have been possible without the help of many people and organisations that worked with Jon and me to develop the UCAM and helped us clarify the approach. I therefore echo Jon’s thanks to them all. I would also like to extend my thanks to all those INCOSE members who helped develop the INCOSE Systems Engineering Competencies Framework, and in particular those that I had the pleasure to work with on the Phase 3 Working Group, particularly Simon, Richard, Sandra, David, Dez, Jocelyn, Shane and Ady.

Finally, I could not have written this book and kept my sanity without the love, encouragement and support of my wife Sally. She continues to inspire me every day, and is the only person I know who would put up with being woken by my enthusiastic bongo playing with such equanimity. Also, thanks to our feline alarm clock, Motley the cat, who never fails to wake me up at all the wrong times.

Simon Perry, January 2011