The outcome of Project Gordon seeks to disrupt the Systems Engineering professional development experience by radically improving the efficiency of understanding and retaining of key concepts from the INCOSE SE Handbook v5.

This post seeks to provide an introduction to the project’s main deliverable, provide weekly snapshot to the project status as well as share the return of experience.

What is Project Gordon?

Firstly I’ll reintroduce the vision of Fitzgerald Systems:

Fitzgerald Systems aspires to promote resolution, humility, industry, and frugality while advocating for equal opportunity, freedom of choice, the pursuit of happiness, and holistic thinking. Fitzgerald Systems seeks to bridge the gap between systems engineering practitioners and academia, advance General Systems Theory, and implement best practices across various sectors. Our strategy includes curating quality academic and case study resources, developing cohesive frameworks, and delivering training that supports professional growth and the application of systems thinking principles.

Project Gordon involves the development and curation of decks of flash cards covering many concepts from the INCOSE SE Handbook v5 with the intention that these flash cards are used by prospective INCOSE SEP examinees to prepare for the SEP exam. These flash cards are intended to be used in conjunction with the INCOSE SE Handbook and, though being comprehensive, not replace the Handbook.

But back up a bit, why flash cards? I had a formal education in engineering but the systems engineering domain was altogether new to me. When I was studying for the SEP exam (at the time it was for v4 of the Handbook) I relied heavily on creating flash cards to capture key concepts which I then used to practice active recall. By methodically and iteratively going through the handbook I gradually improved my understanding of the content which I found in all honesty, at times, heavy with non-intuitive terms (‘top down integration’ anybody?). Flash cards were instrumental to myself making an entry into the SE community and perhaps others could also benefit from having these flash cards available.

Which leads me back to the a segment of the Fitzgerald Systems vision: support professional growth, whilst advocating for equal opportunity and the virtue of industry. By making these flash cards available for a nominal fee I hope to facilitate the growth of the SE community.

Key aspects of Project Gordon are given below.

Project Status – updated May 18th

As of May 18th, 2025, and 13 days ahead of schedule, 100% of all target INCOSE SE Handbook sections have been covered finishing with 517 unique flash cards!

As of May 18th, 2025, 100% of all targe INCOSE SE Handbook sections (Section 1 – Introduction through to Section 5 – Systems Engineering in Practice and Appendix C – Terms and Definitions) have been covered, finishing with 517 unique flash cards.

From now to the next update (Monday May 25th) I’ll:

• Consolidate the number of flash card decks to be ~100 flash cards per deck,
• Format flash cards to improve readability (e.g. make critical text bold),
• Check order and typos,
• Record a video on how to use the flash cards.

Pre-Order (finishes at May 31st) now Available

I’ve included the Flash Cards to the list of services now available form the store:

Pre-Order!! INCOSE SE Handbook v5 Flash Cards – Fitzgerald Systems

Leave a comment if you have any questions!