This interview was conducted in 2021.

Q1: Describe your current position/role.

Currently, I am working as Systems Engineer in Health care domain.

Q2: What are one or two of your proudest professional accomplishments?

I am happy to share that I was a winner of the 2020 Women in Engineering - RD&E award from the Industrial domain in my previous organization based on my technical achievements and contributions to make an impact on products and processes.

Q3: What is the biggest challenge you face as a Systems Engineer?

I would say in my experience, traceability among various artifacts and managing design input changes became challenging in later lifecycle phases in complex system development.

Q4: What advice do you have for individuals starting their career as a Systems Engineer?

Personally, I got a great experience by learning the SE approach and gaining practical experience on the job and as part of the INCOSE working group by driving better solutions through a holistic understanding of the problem. Thus, I would suggest starting with a similar approach to get a better understanding.

Q5: How do you continue to learn about SE? What professional development activities do you do?

Beyond my current responsibilities as a Systems Engineer, I am part of the MBSE Local Working Group in INCOSE India Chapter, which gives me an excellent opportunity to continue learning and adopting best practices guided by professionals from various industries and work on exciting problems statements and develop systems using MBSE methodology.

Q6: What are the next career goals you want to achieve?

I would like to obtain extensive practical experience and understanding to become a Certified SEP and a functional leader to guide the team of Systems Engineers.

Q7: What are some of your hobbies/interests outside of work?

Nowadays, during my free time or on weekends, I explore indoor interests of playing musical keyboard and designing web based systems (understanding programming).

Q8: Why did you decide to get the SEP certification?

I decided to apply for SEP certification to gain exposure to broad Systems Engineering knowledge. The main purpose was to learn and develop systems thinking skills and understand the systems approach applied to engineer systems.

Q9: How does the SEP certification impact your professional career?

SEP certification had a significant impact on my career to expand my exposure to systems-level programs, get recognized, and able to dive into more responsibilities as a Systems Engineer. In addition, the journey towards SEP certification truly helped me understand deeply to bring in a holistic approach from a systems perspective to drive improved solutions.

Q10: What has surprised you in the past five years related to systems engineering?

I think transitioning to the MBSE approach is really emerging to deal with the limitations of the traditional document-based approach. Being one of the pioneers to explore and adopt MBSE in organizations, I have experienced the value that MBSE offers to improve quality by reducing the risks early.

Q11: What job titles have you had other than “Systems Engineer?”

Requirements Engineer