Agile Model-Based Systems Engineering Cookbook
Second Edition
Improve system development by applying proven recipes for effective agile systems engineering
Agile Model-Based Systems Engineering Cookbook
Second Edition
Copyright © 2022 Packt Publishing
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First published: March 2021
Second edition: December 2022
Production reference: 2271222
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-80323-582-0
Foreword
As a systems engineer, you may know that viewpoints are important to understand context. When you read this foreword, you should be aware that I wrote it from my individual viewpoint. My own professional role involves the development of methods, templates, and training to make Systems engineering applicable for organizations, and also producing complex systems consisting of mechanical and electrical hardware, software, and the human beings operating it or interacting with it. Systems engineering is nowadays challenged with several constraints and boundary conditions requiring permanent change in the organization and its processes, methods, and tools. The need to work closely cross-domain (e. g. mechanical and hardware designers working together with software programmers, testers, and stakeholders), the need to quickly react to external (and internal) disruptions, and the need to bridge cross-cultural gaps require several significant changes in parallel. And this is difficult for bigger organizations and hard to realize. This is where this book helps significantly and contributes to mastering such challenges. The answer to those challenges lies in the introduction and application of Systems Engineering (SE) and in agile methods. The definition, deployment, implementation, maturation, and management of those two changes is a huge challenge to bigger companies and this book provides simple (not easy!) recipes to approach those changes.
This book perfectly fills a couple of gaps existing today in this area. Typically, there are two ways for companies to start their Systems Engineering journey: either they start first with training and educating Systems engineers theoretically or they start introducing a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tool to provide a tool to “do Systems Engineering”. I’m not saying that the one or other method is better or worse, but I have observed this for years. Actually, both are necessary as, Systems Engineers need a good theoretical background on the methods and on tools. For re-use and communication, modern MBSE tools are optimally suited to implement SE formally in all development processes. However, to implement Systems Engineering broadly in a cross-domain development organization it is critical to follow strict modelling rules and to install syntactic and semantic guidelines.
In this area this book perfectly meets the needs of any SE practitioner and each company implementing or applying SE. The practical guidelines, the “step-by-step” descriptions, the cross-domain designed examples, and the provided downloads allow companies and individuals to get quickly and easily to the core of the method and mind set. With the provided references and additional sources, this book offers many further paths to go into more detail in many domains if needed or desired.
The second critical area covered by this book is the “agile” aspects of modern development organizations. The beauty of this book is that it holds “agile” at its core, the agile manifesto, and does not reduce or limit it to one of the many agile process implementations. The book provides excellent directions and practices to become more agile, independent of the development domain (not limited to software development), and also builds the bridge on how to use SE and MBSE in particular to foster an agile development process in general. Using the different SE artifacts as deliverables, prioritizing them accordingly to build a useful backlog, employing methods to track progress and risk, etc. are well described and practically applicable. As said before, practical examples and “step-by-step” guidelines are the core enablers for immediate practical application.
Last but not least, while the book follows the full development cycle and covers the aspects of functional analysis, architecting, trade studies, system design, verification, and validation, it also details the important aspects of system safety and security.
I highly recommend this book to all SE practitioners and to anyone considering how to implement SE in a company or how to become more agile. This second edition, with all of its enhancements and improvements in the step-by-step description and its additional areas covering things such as system security, is a must have in each SE’s library.
Thank you Bruce, and well done!
Christian von Holst
Global Tractor Systems Engineering Lead at John Deere
Contributors
About the author
has received an MS in exercise physiology from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. in neurocybernetics from the USD Medical School. He has worked as a software developer and systems engineer in safety-critical real-time embedded systems for almost 40 years and is a well-known speaker, author, and consultant in the area of real-time embedded systems, UML, and SysML. He is a coauthor of the UML and SysML standards, and teaches courses in real-time systems and software design and project management. Bruce has also authored articles for many journals and periodicals, especially in the real-time domain, and authored several other books on systems and software development. He has worked at I-Logix, Telelogic, and IBM on the Rhapsody modeling tool. He is currently a senior principal agile systems engineer at MITRE, and the principal at A-Priori Systems.
About the reviewers
has more than a decade of experience in the development of complex engineered systems across the entire lifecycle. Currently, he is working as a Systems Engineer at the ALMA Observatory, the world’s most powerful telescope at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. Previously, he has worked in the development of small space systems for planetary surface exploration and as a consultant in systems engineering with MBSE focus at SPEX Systems.
He is an aerospace engineer, an OMG certified Systems Modeling Professional – Model Builder Advanced (OCSMP-MBA), an INCOSE associate Systems Engineering professional, and an active member of this professional organization participating in several groups (Space Systems WG, Requirements WG, LATAM Chapter). He also holds an MIT certificate in Architecture and Systems Engineering and has gained work experience in the United States, Switzerland, and Chile.
A word of acknowledgment to the author for sharing his vast knowledge with the MBSE community and for the opportunity to contribute with a grain of sand as a technical reviewer. Also, a special thanks to my family for their kind support and patience during the time invested in the review process.
is global MBSE Ecosystem Transformation Leader and MBSE R&D Cyber Portfolio Manager NAM at Dassault Systemes. He is also an INCOSE CAB Representative and on the CSE Board of Advisors at the University of Texas.
He has 20 years of MBSE solutions experience, and is a product owner and analyst with the Cameo core team, chief solution architect, consultant, and trainer. He is a world-leading expert in MBSE ecosystem, digital engineering, system architecture and simulation.
Throughout his career, he has been actively involved in building excellent MBSE ecosystem solutions in aerospace, defense, automotive and other areas as a former affiliate for JPL NASA for MBSE consulting and a contractor for Boeing's MBSE transformation.
Dr Saulius Pavalkis contributed to the MBSE SysML Based Method and Framework MagicGrid book and recently the Agile MBSE Cookbook by Dr. Bruce Douglass. He guides 2,000 subscribers—the largest SysML systems simulation community on YouTube (youtube.com/c/MBSEExecution). Saulius has INCOSE CSEP, OMG OCSMP, the No Magic lifetime modeling and simulation excellence award, a PhD in software engineering in the models query area, and a MS and BS in telecommunications and electronics from Kaunas University of Technology.
I would like to thank Dr. Bruce Douglass for amazing opportunity to review his latest book on Agile MBSE application. Dr. Bruce is a leading expert in effective and efficient MBSE application and has made this book is the best in class as an MBSE transformation guide. It is a must-have for any company or expert. Thank you, Dr. Bruce Douglass!
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