Model-Based Systems Engineering - MBSE

The development of continuously more complex products is becoming extremely challenging. The ever-increasing product complexity and shrinking design and development windows are forcing constant change. Although important, the time to market complex products is just one part of the equation. The real challenge is doing that while sticking to the highest standards, ensuring that every product is safe, reliable, and meets even the strictest industry and government compliance specifications.

One of the possible solutions to increase competitiveness is to adopt agile practices even in traditional engineering environments and choose technologies that use data-driven decisions, provide visibility, traceability, simplicity. It is also important that they use precise descriptive models that are easy to understand and provide accurate digital representations of the products they are designing.

This article will cover MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering) - the methodology that has been increasingly embraced by both industry and government and has proven effective even in the most challenging domains such as space technology in NASA. MBSE is at the core of multidisciplinary, multi-supplier, and multi application projects that involve a wide variety of stakeholders, cross-functional teams and several engineering disciplines.

According to the Department of Defence, the MBSE is a core enabler of the strategy, of which the first of five pillars is to formalize the development, integration and the use of models to inform enterprise and program decision-making.

Model-Based Systems Engineering also stood out as a “crucial enabler” in the research of “HOW TO IMPROVE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PROJECT PERFORMANCE WITH MODEL-BASED SYSTEMS ENGINEERING (MBSE) ” by the independent research firm Tech-Clarity, where they surveyed 193 companies and examined the practices of those involved with multi-disciplinary development projects. The study looked at what Top Performing companies do to achieve better results than their peers and identify how any company can improve efficiency, lower cost and increase quality.

A finding that stood out is that an overwhelming 97% of Top Performing companies have adopted MBSE or plan to adopt it. Companies that have already adopted MBSE report benefits such as a single source of truth, improved traceability and a common visual reference. As a result, their teams are more productive and produce higher-quality products. While 99% of all companies that have deployed MBSE report benefits, Top Performers experience even more value due to how they adopt and use the solution. Furthermore, many companies that have adopted MBSE report even more benefits than anticipated by their own estimations.

INCOSE describes MBSE as “the formalized application of modeling to support system requirements, design, analysis, verification, and validation activities beginning in the conceptual design phase and continuing throughout development and later life cycle phases.”

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), is a systems engineering process paradigm that emphasizes the application of rigorous architecture modeling principles and best practices to systems engineering activities throughout the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). These systems engineering activities include, but are not limited to: requirements analysis, system (functional) analysis, performance analysis (trade studies), system design, system architecture specification and system Verification & Validation (V&V).

The fundamental part of MBSE is a model - an abstraction of reality. MBSE uses these models to represent systems functions, behaviors, requirements, dependencies, relationships and also physical components.

One of the biggest advantages of model-based system engineering is the level of design abstraction. MBSE considers the system as a whole and provides a comprehensive picture of the system from very high/abstract levels, connecting all elements that may be complex enough to be considered systems themselves, decomposing them into smaller parts while adding more details. This is done recursively until the system is decomposed to small segments that may be handled by individual teams. This is a so-called a top-down design approach to bringing complex products to life, recursively using and applying systems engineering activities at all levels.

The ability to see all of this context of the system, its individual parts together with dependencies, constraints and conception of how individual parts of the system work together allows architects to discover problems much quicker and earlier in the system development lifecycle, potentially saving a lot of time and money compared to discovering and remediating the issues in the later stages of the development process.

Model-Based systems engineering is the go-to process for industries that require holistic, collaborative, and agile approaches to develop a complex product. Our MBSE customers are from a wide range of industries such as:

• Automotive
• Aerospace and defense
• Rail
• Energy
• Medical devices
• Consumer electronics

The process of creating systems that involve multiple disciplines is inherently complicated. Inefficient methods may lead to increased expenses, reduced earnings, subpar quality and missed windows of opportunity.

Multi-disciplinary projects require systems and tools that enable cross-functional team collaboration to develop a product that integrates components across all disciplines. Choosing the right technology and tools that enable these critical functions is essential for MBSE to be able to live up to its potential.

Nevertheless, by implementing suitable practices and technology, businesses can enhance their profitability and gain a competitive edge.

IBM® Engineering Systems Design Rhapsody® (Rational Rhapsody) and its family of products offer a proven solution for modeling and systems design activities that allow you to manage the complexity many organizations face with product and systems development. IBM Rational Rhapsody provides a comprehensive approach that helps manage the entire development and design process and ensures speed, accuracy, agility, as well as cost reduction. The IBM Rhapsody solutions support DoDAF (Department of Defense Architecture Framework), MODAF (Ministry of Defense Architecture Framework) and UPDM/UAF standards for the structuring of enterprise and systems of system design. From the beginning of an initiative to the final launch of the product, IBM Rhapsody helps ensure a smooth and agile process. The IBM Rhapsody solution achieves these goals with tools that facilitate:

Team and stakeholder collaboration
All stakeholders contributing to the initiative can easily connect through a web browser, regardless of geographic location and rely upon this single point of truth. 

Traceability
Traceability is necessary for compliance. All changes are automatically tracked to ensure each change can be traced to its originator. You can also find out how and why design decisions and tradeoffs were made through the steps of requirements > specification > design > code. 

Establishment of requirements
Automated tools ensure clarity as stakeholders develop, and then approve the requirements for the initiative. All changes and approvals are captured to ensure accuracy and compliance.

Model creation
An animated version of the original sequence diagram will draw itself as the model executes, revealing the messages that are being exchanged and showing the system functions as they occur. Reusable models are developed based on requirements and industry and government regulations.

Simulation and model based testing
Diagrams in an IBM Rhapsody model are interrelated, so changes to an element in one diagram are automatically propagated throughout the model, enhancing data consistency across systems. Simulation provides early validation and helps expose problems early in the process. This helps protect against costly systems failures following release. You can automate test creation and execution using IBM Engineering Systems Design Rhapsody – Test Conductor Add On software as part of meeting ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 standards

Defect discovery
When a defect is discovered, the software can investigate, test and help make the needed correction. This occurs early in the development process, to help with eliminating the high costs of errors that make it to market.

Review
Throughout the process, reviews (with all comments tracked) can be closed only when sufficient approvals are received.

Reusability
Models can be reused within the same initiative or applied to other initiatives, speeding up the process and reducing costs

Although MBSE is at the center of engineering complexity, it does not work alone. It works in a complex and dynamic engineering environment. When your organization is depending on you to develop innovative, error-free software or product introductions, you need to follow a reliable and integrated process. This complexity demands that you choose an approach, which takes into account disparate tools and processes, distributed stakeholders and demands for regulatory compliance. The leading platform tackling this complexity is IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM). It provides an integrated end-to-end solution that offers full transparency and traceability across all engineering data. From requirements through testing and deployment, ELM optimizes collaboration and communication across all stakeholders, improving decision-making, productivity and overall product quality. Learn more about ELM on the Softacus ELM Webpage.