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The engineering practice is becoming dynamic in nature, increasing in complexity, enhancing in connectivity, and growing in need for convergence among disciplines. Given the shift in the nature of problems and solutions, there is an opportunity within Systems Engineering for transforming into a transdisciplinary discipline. According to Rousseau [1], transdisciplinarity can be used as a powerful problem-solving technique that brings in patterns and perspectives by crossing disciplinary boundaries and creating a holistic approach. Extending this definition, transdisciplinarity in systems engineering would mean going beyond the traditional “engineering involvement” to identifying and involving stakeholders from various disciplines with different worldviews to accomplish key fundamental principles of systems engineering. In response to these opportunities, several competency frameworks have been developed, however they have not been updated in several years based on the evolving role of systems engineer, the engineering practice, and aligning with the growing transdisciplinarity of the field. In particular, academic and industry leaders have not agreed on what important teamwork competencies are necessary to comprehend the transformation in the systems engineering discipline. Furthermore, research is required on how to effectively develop teamwork within the systems engineering competency framework to adapt to transdisciplinary systems engineering.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the literature to obtain a comprehensive understanding of how teamwork has been used or proposed as a competency in the systems engineering competency-based frameworks in order to align with the transformation of the discipline. More specifically, the research question guiding this study is: What aspects of teamwork have been proposed or studied in systems engineering competency-based frameworks as part of the transformation of the systems engineering discipline?

We analyzed sources from several engineering databases including book chapters, journals and conference papers using “Teamwork”, “Teamwork competency” and “Systems Engineering” as our initial search term, for a period of at least 5 years. The final synthesis of our systematic review which involved identifying important key teamwork attributes necessary to develop effective teamwork required to align with the transdisciplinary transformation of the systems engineering discipline.

The results of the systematic review yielded key themes on teamwork which have been proposed for comprehending the change in systems engineering discipline. Furthermore, when these results are combined with our previous work on teamwork, we are able to conclude that this study will provide valuable insights to both academia and industry in the understanding of teamwork skills development processes in order to prepare the future engineering workforce and in the development of the curriculum for the systems engineering education vision 2030.

[1] D. Rousseau, “Systems Research and the Quest for Scientific Systems Principles,” Systems, vol. 5, no. 2, p. 25, 2017.