Professor Tim Rabbets

Background 

Following graduation Professor Rabbets has worked in systems engineering and architecting through his career in industry, working for a variety of employers including BAE Systems, VSEL/GEC Marine, DERA and QinetiQ. He has held a variety of senior appointments on projects, in professional management and, most recently as Chief Engineer for Systems Engineering. His research into, development of new insight and approaches for, and practical application of systems engineering has been recognised through his awarding of fellowship and senior fellowship by QinetiQ.

Professor Rabbets has been active in development of the profession of systems engineering through chairing and co-chairing professional engineering institute working groups such as INCOSE UK’s Architecture Working Group and UK Defence Working Group. He has also contributed to or co-edited several international standards including ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 and the 42000 series of standards through his membership of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 WG42 and BSI IST/15.

Qualifications and key awards

• BA Mathematics, Pembroke College, Oxford
• MA Mathematics, Pembroke College, Oxford
• Fellowship, QinetiQ for work nationally in systems engineering
• Senior fellowship, QinetiQ for work internationally in systems engineering and architecting
• MBCS, CITP, CEng, MIET, MINCOSE, MAPM, APMP, MRUSI, SMAIAA, RCNC

My interests include:

• educating and training systems engineers and architects
• developing practices in systems engineering and architecting
• integrating systems engineering with other engineering, technical and management disciplines
• the engineering of complex engineered systems
• The development and application of MBSE techniques within systems engineering.

Specific areas of research undertaken include:

• System non-functional properties, their link to engineering speciality disciplines and harmonisation
• Open systems architectures
• System design focussed on concept generation

My interests are based on my educating and training systems engineers across a broad range of application domains and for several major engineering and R&D organisations. I have also developed international and UK standards in systems engineering, published numerous technical and conference papers, practice guides and co-authored the INCOSE UK’s Don’t Panic Guide to Architecture and Architecting.

Whilst working for DERA I led a significant Ministry of Defence research programme concerned with the development of systems engineering techniques and their application in support of real systems development.  I was subsequently awarded a QinetiQ fellowship for the quality and novelty of the research that I undertook and led.

Radoman, R, Henshaw M, Rabbets T, and  Wilkinson, M, Open Architecture – Realistic Aspiration or Pipedream?, INCOSE ASEC 23, Liverpool 2023

Radoman, R, Henshaw, M, King, M, and Rabbets, T, Mapping of Open Architectures Applied to Military Systems, SOSE Conference, Lille 2023

Rabbets, T (co-editor), ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2023, Architecture description (revision), ISO/IEC, Geneva 2023

Wilkinson, M, and Rabbets, T (co-author), Don’t Panic Guide to System Architecture and Architecting, INCOSE UK, Ilminster 2020

Elam, D, Rabbets, T, Wilkinson, M, Gollaglee, J, and Holt, J, Architecting for Non-functional Concerns: Industry Examples and Common Patterns, CSD&M Conference, Paris 2020

Rabbets, T (contributor), ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019, Architecture processes (new standard), ISO/IEC, Geneva 2019

Rabbets, T (contributor), ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019, Architecture evaluation framework (new standard), ISO/IEC, Geneva 201

Rabbets, T (lead author) et al, Introduction to System Architecting – an INCOSE UK guide, Version 1.2, INCOSE UK, Ilminster 2019

Rabbets, T (lead author), and Walker, L, Architecting of complex multi-disciplinary systems, INCOSE/IET Symposium, Derby 2017

Hicks, P, and Rabbets, T (lead author), Effective System Architecture Description using a Presentational Data Schema, INCOSE IS16, Edinburgh 2016

Smith, P, Biggs, W, and Rabbets, T, Architectural developments to enable the integration of unmanned vehicles into the maritime system of systems, INEC, Bristol 2016

Biggs, W, and Rabbets, T, Systems engineering enablers for maritime intelligent systems, IMarEST Engine as a Weapon 6, Bath 2015

Bryant, P (ed), Holt, J, Rabbets, T, and Wilkinson, M, The Practice of System Architecture: A UK Perspective, Issue 1.0, INCOSE UK, Ilminster 2014

Venn, D, Higgins, A, Paxton, M, and Rabbets, T, How will the UK test, evaluate and certify highly autonomous maritime capabilities?, INEC, Amsterdam 2014

Henshaw, M (ed), Rabbets, T (contributor) et al, Assessment of Open Architectures within Defence Procurement, Loughborough University / MOD SOSACF 2011