WHAT’S INSIDE:
A Quotation to Open On
Feature Article: What Are Systems of Systems and How to Engineer Them: An Overview of Current System of Systems Research
Systems Engineering News
- Upcoming Submission Deadlines and Themes for INSIGHT
- The 7 Deadly Sins of Lean Integration
- Darpa Wants To Break the System Design Mold
- Julian M. Goldman, MD Is Awarded INCOSE’s Pioneer Award for Using Systems Engineering Practices to Improve Patient Safety and Clinical Care
- INCOSE Webinars
- AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference Set for August 30 – September 2 in Anaheim
- The INCOSE International Symposium 2012 will take place in Rome
- Inaugural Meeting for the SoSA (System of Systems Approach) Community Forum
- INCOSE Members Take Note of New Wiley Library
- Systems Thinking Schools of Thought and Research
Featured Societies – Global Association for Systems Thinking
INCOSE Technical Operations – Tool Integration and Interoperability Working Group
Systems Engineering Software Tools News
- MDG Technology for SysML Released by Sparx Systems
- OMG Announces New Processes Open for Participation
- Siemens PLM Connection Users Conference and Analyst Day
Systems Engineering Books, Reports, Articles and Papers
- The Systems Thinking Playbook: Exercises to Stretch and Build Learning and Systems Thinking Capabilities
- Challenges in Combining SysML and MARTE for Model-Based Design of Embedded Systems
- Satisfying Demand for Systems Engineers
- The Competencies of a Business Analyst
- Model-Driven Engineering Allows New Design Methods to Improve an Existing Aircraft System
Conferences and Meetings
Education and Academia
- Ackoff Collaboratory for Advancement of the Systems Approach (ACASA)
- S&T Ph.D. Student Receives INCOSE Doctoral Award
- Khalifa University Expands Senior Faculty Team
- U.Va. Master’s Program for Systems Engineers Helps Companies Streamline
Some Systems Engineering-Relevant Websites
Standards and Guides
- Tutorial: Architectural Rendering with ISO/IEC 42010
- New ISO standard will help space projects learn from experience
A Definition to Close on
PPI News
PPI Events
A Quotation to Open On
TBD
Feature Article
What Are Systems of Systems and How to Engineer Them: An Overview of Current System of Systems Research
Jo Ann Lane
University of Southern California
To quickly respond to changing business and mission needs, many organizations are integrating new and existing systems with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products into network-centric, knowledge-based, interoperable, software-intensive systems of systems (SoS). With this approach, system development processes to provide new SoS capabilities and improve the performance of existing capabilities are evolving and being referred to as SoS Engineering (SoSE). This article describes the results of recent SoS and SoSE investigations and research that explore the characteristics of SoSs, SoSE challenges, and how SoSE is evolving to address these challenges.
SoS Characteristics and SoSE Challenges
“System of systems” is a term often used to describe a set of related net-centric, software-intensive systems that are used to provide capabilities that cannot be accomplished by any single system in the set. Each system that is part of an SoS is often referred to as a constituent system. In recent times, SoSs have become more complex and difficult to manage, due in part to the fact that SoS capabilities can conflict with single system requirements and plans and, for systems that belong to more than one SoS, present conflicts between the change requests from multiple SoSs. To better guide SoS evolution and performance enhancement, many organizations have established a system of systems engineering (SoSE) team.
To support the United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD) SoS, an initiative was established to analyze 18 SoSs and develop guidance to support SoSE. The results, published in the recent DoD guidebook, Systems Engineering for Systems of Systems [3] (hereinafter referred to as the SoSE guidebook), characterized SoSE using seven core elements: translating capability objectives into requirements; understanding SoS constituent systems and their relationships; assessing actual performance to capability objectives; developing, evolving, and maintaining an SoS architecture; monitoring and assessing constituent system changes; addressing new requirements and options; and orchestrating upgrades to SoS. This work along with the current SoSE challenges it identified has encouraged continuing research in the SoSE arena.
Much of the current SoS and SoSE research being conducted with respect to US DoD systems of systems uses Mark Maier’s definition of SoSs [8] to characterize SoSs. According to his definition, an SoS is a set of systems that are integrated to perform one or more capabilities (or exhibit emergent behaviors) that are not otherwise achievable by any one of the single constituent systems. In addition, each constituent system is typically capable of operating on its own outside of the SoS (i.e., has its own purpose) as well as participating in multiple SoSs. And finally, these constituent systems are typically owned and managed by a variety of organizations. In the case of US DoD SoS, these organizations might be multiple government agencies or commercial entities providing custom systems or commercial products.
SoS researchers [3, 8] have found that there are several ways that an SoS can be managed and that these management approaches inform and guide the engineering activities that are performed at the SoS level. These management approaches can also be described in terms of increasing levels of authority and responsibility. The virtual SoS lacks a central management authority and a clear SoS purpose—an example of this is the Internet. In the collaborative SoS, constituent system engineering teams work together, but there is no overarching independent SoSE team to guide SoSE activities and resolve SoSE conflicts. The acknowledged SoS has recognized objectives, a designated manager, and resources at the SoS level (SoSE team), but not a lot of authority over the constituent systems. The directed SoS, which is not as common as a collaborative or acknowledged SoS, is centrally managed by a government, corporate, or Lead System Integrator team with relatively strong authority over the core constituent systems and built to fulfill specific purposes—an example of this is the US DoD Future Combat Systems. Most of the SoS/SoSE-related research is with respect to the acknowledged SoS since this is the first type of SoS in the ascending hierarchy of authority and responsibility where there is an identifiable team responsible for engineering activities at the SoS level. The majority of the SoS case studies in [3] are acknowledged SoSs.
SoS and SoSE Research Overview
In recent years, considerable research has been done to better understand SoSs in general as well as to understand current SoSE practices and provide guidance to those responsible for SoSs and performing SoSE. The following sections briefly describe several of these research efforts and provide references for additional information.
Modeling to Support SoSE
Part of the research for the SoSE guidebook [3] probed the application of modeling and simulation (M&S) to support SoS systems engineering. Those SoSE teams that employed M&S used it to understand complex and emergent behaviors of systems that interact with each other, explore new capability options, identify potential integration issues, evaluate current SoS architecture and potential architecture changes, and support test and evaluation, especially end-to-end performance. However, use was limited mostly to those situations where there were existing models and simulations available and that these existing models and simulations were at an appropriate level of fidelity for the area of interest. Based upon the modeling needs identified by the SoSE guidebook case study teams, additional research identified SysML and UML modeling techniques that were being used to support several of the key SoSE core processes documented in the SoSE guidebook: understanding SoS constituent systems and their relationships; monitoring and assessing constituent system changes; developing, evolving, and maintaining an SoS architecture; and addressing new requirements and solution options. These modeling techniques include:
- Object classes to characterize each SoS constituent system and its capabilities
- Interface classes to describe each constituent system interfaces
- Input/output entity classes to describe the associated data attributes of each data item transferred over a given interface
- Use cases to characterize both constituent system and SoS capabilities from the different user perspectives
- Sequence diagrams to characterize and analyze the operational flow for an SoS capability
- Logical data models to provide details about available information within each constituent system.
Figure 1 provides example model views for an example SoS, the Regional Area Crisis Management SoS (RACRS). Additional details about these SoS modeling techniques can be found in [7].
Figure 1. Example SysML models to support SoSE activities.
SoSE Application of Lean Principles
By applying a lean enterprise lens to analyze the evolving field of SoSE, Lane and Valerdi [6] observed that many SoSE teams are developing processes that are consistent with many lean enterprise principles. The first lean indicators were identified through the analysis of 13 of the 18 SoS case studies documented in [3]. These indicators showed that the SoSE teams employ a holistic view of the SoS, focusing on long term goals; are guided by prioritized stakeholder capability needs; view themselves as continual learning organizations; establish an upgrade “battle rhythm” by making decisions slowly by consensus, considering all options, establishing a continuous process flow through concurrent engineering, “pulling” constituent system engineering information as needed, implementing rapidly, and leveling the workload by using constituent systems with available resources to implement needed new functionality; minimize waste by avoiding duplication of constituent systems engineering efforts and eliminating non-value adding engineering activities and documentation; and respecting and challenging the SoSE suppliers, i.e., the constituent system engineering teams. These SoSE processes are designed to efficiently evolve the group of systems to meet new needs using limited resources.
Further analysis, summarized in Figure 2, used Murman, et al.’s lean enterprise principles [9] and Nightingale’s lean enterprise four grand questions [10]. Through this analysis, it became evident that SoSE teams are employing lean concepts whether or not they are aware of it. By making the SoSE teams more aware of the application of lean principles to SoSE, they have more confidence in the ways they have evolved single system engineering processes into SoSE processes as well as a vision to guide further optimization of their processes. This lean focus also guides how the SoSE team engages with the constituent systems engineering teams and works to meet both the needs of the constituent system stakeholders and the SoS stakeholders, one of the key challenges identified in [3].
Figure 2. Overview of SoSE lean analysis.
SoSE Cost Modeling and Estimation
The University of Southern California’s Center for System and Software Engineering has done considerable work in the areas of software development, systems engineering, and Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) integration cost modeling. These parametric cost models focus on the engineering product, the processes used to develop the product, and the skills and experience levels of the technical staff responsible for the development of the product. The parametric cost models require a set (one or more) of size drivers to describe the size of the product to be developed. The size driver(s) are then used to compute a nominal effort (labor hours) for the project. In addition, there are a set of cost drivers to adjust the nominal effort either up or down, depending on the characteristics of the product to be developed, the processes used to develop the product, and the experience and capabilities of the people developing the product. Key to these cost models is determining through weighting factors how much influence each cost driver should have on the estimated effort. The computed adjustment factor, based on the cost drivers and associated weights, is called an Effort Multiplier (EM).
To develop an SoSE cost model, the cost modeling team attempted to build upon one or more of the existing cost models. The Constructive Systems Engineering Cost Model (COSYSMO) [11] was the selected cost model that most closely estimates the SE effort associated with SoS engineering activities. The nature of SoSs (as well as complex systems) is that they are often composed of many subsystems, some relatively simple and others rather complex. However, the initial version of COSYSMO only allowed the user to specify a single set of EMs for the whole system, with no ability to generate EMs for the various constituent systems comprising an SoS. Through analysis of the SoSE guidebook processes and case studies, extensions to COSYSMO were developed that allowed the user to characterize the SoS and its engineering team and processes as well as the constituent systems and their engineering teams and processes. In addition, factors were added to incorporate SoSE and constituent system activities not typically performed for a single system engineering effort. Finally, the various components are combined in a way that captures the diseconomy of scale that results as the engineering size drivers (e.g., number of requirements) grow. Figure 3 provides an overview of this model and additional details can be found in [5].
Figure 3. Overview of SoSE cost model.
SoS Test and Evaluation (T&E) Approaches
Most system testing activities are performed at the single system level, evaluating single system functions and external interfaces. And upon successful test, the system is deployed, often leaving many of the SoS capabilities untested. Recent efforts [1,2] have focused on challenges associated with testing at the SoS level and have tried to capture SoS T&E heuristics from those organizations that are conducting testing at the SoS level.
DoD SoS testing experiences documented to date indicate that SoS-level testing typically builds upon constituent system level testing and is conducted either at a test range using actual systems/platforms or in an operational environment. In both cases, the constituent systems are often instrumented in order to capture performance information for test evaluation. SoS-level testing is typically a risk-based approach that prioritizes testing activities based on perceived risks with respect to the desired capabilities and potential emergent behaviors (both desired and undesirable). For software-intensive SoSs integrated via networks, testing also focuses on network performance and interoperability of the systems.
Because there are typically multiple constituent systems contributing to a new capability and constituent systems are fielded on their own upgrade cycles, new SoS capabilities are often deployed in a piecemeal manner over time. Therefore, SoS testing is viewed as a performance assessment of deployed capabilities over time that provides feedback to the constituent systems about detected problems to be addressed in a future upgrade cycle. The result is that the constituent systems must implement new SoS capability elements in a way that does not adversely affect current SoS operations yet can contribute to the new capability as soon as all of the necessary elements have been deployed. Likewise, the SoS must operate over this transition period, waiting for all of the capability elements to delivered and if a problem is detected, must be able to disable the new capability (if necessary) until fixes can be provided on the next upgrade cycle.
Once all of the capability elements are in place, full capability testing can begin. While SoSE teams would prefer to test more rigorously at the SoS level before new capabilities are deployed, this continuous assessment approach allows the SoS to function while not holding up the deployment of single system upgrades required by the single-system stakeholders. Research continues in this area to find more effective ways to test at the SoS level.
Conclusions
Current research is providing good insights into SoSE challenges and ways that various SoSE organizations are working to meet these challenges. This starts with capturing the essence of current SoSE processes, practices, and engineering artifacts, evaluating them with respect to lean principles, and showing how current processes are incorporating these lean principles. It also includes the evolution of single system tools and techniques (e.g., engineering modeling tools such as SysML and UML, cost estimation models, and test tools and techniques) to support SoSE needs.
Finally, the research activities to date have only scratched the surface. Projections [4] with respect to systems of the future show that SoS are going to continue to have a significant role and are a cost effective way to extend the life of existing systems while providing more complex capabilities to users and stakeholders. Research activities and workshops in collaboration with SoSE team members and SE organizations such as INCOSE continue to look for better ways to manage and evolve SoSs.
References
- Dahmann, J., J. Lane, G. Rebovich, and R. Lowry. 2010. System of systems test and evaluation challenges. Proceedings of the IEEE System of Systems Engineering Conference, 22-24 June, in Loughborough, UK.
- Deonandan, I., R. Valerdi, J. Lane, and F. Macias. 2010. Cost and risk considerations for test and evaluation of unmanned and autonomous systems of systems, Proceedings of the IEEE System of Systems Engineering Conference, 22-24 June, In Loughborough, UK.
- Department of Defense. 2008. Systems engineering guide for system of systems, version 1.0.
- INCOSE, Systems Engineering Vision 2020, INCOSE-TP-2004-004-02, 2007.
- Lane, J. 2009. Cost model extensions to support systems engineering cost estimation for complex systems and systems of systems, Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on Systems Engineering Research.
- Lane, J. and R. Valerdi. 2010. How to Accelerate Understanding and Optimization of System of Systems Engineering through Lean Enterprise Principles, IEEE Systems Conference.
- Lane, J. and T. Bohn. 2010. Using SySML to evolve systems of systems. USC CSSE Technical Report USC-CSSE-2010-506.
- Maier, M. 1998. Architecting principles for systems-of-systems. Systems Engineering 1, no. 4: 267-284.
- Murman, E. et al., Lean Enterprise Value: Insights from MIT’s Lean Aerospace Initiative. New York , NY: Palgrave, 2002.
- Nightingale, D., “Principles of enterprise systems”, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Engineering Systems, MIT, Cambridge, MA, June 15-17, 2009.
- Valerdi, R. 2005. Constructive systems engineering cost model. PhD. Dissertation, University of Southern California.
About Jo Ann Lane
Jo Ann Lane is a research assistant professor at the DoD-Stevens-USC Systems Engineering Research Center, conducting research in the area of systems engineering and system of systems engineering (SoSE). She was a co-author of the 2008 Department of Defense Systems Engineering Guide for Systems of Systems. Current areas of research include SoSE processes, SoSE cost modeling, SoSE test and evaluation, system development feasibility assessments, and innovation in systems engineering. Prior to her current work in academia, she was a key technical member of Science Applications International Corporation’s Software and Systems Integration Group for over 20 years, responsible for the development and integration of software-intensive systems and systems of systems. She received her PhD in systems engineering from the University of Southern California and her Master’s in computer science from San Diego State University.
Systems Engineering News
Upcoming Submission Deadlines and Themes for INSIGHT
INSIGHT is the newsletter of International Council on Systems Engineering. It is published four times per year (January, April, July, October). INSIGHT features status and information about INCOSE’s technical work, local chapters, and committees and boards. Additionally, related events, editorials, book reviews, trends, and how-to-do articles that are pertinent to the many aspects of a systems engineer’s job are also included, as space permits.
Upcoming submission deadlines and themes for INSIGHT
| Issue | Submission Date for General Articles | Theme | Theme Editors |
| 4th Qtr 2010 | 15-Oct-10 | Systems Development from Deep Sea to Deep Space: | Mike O’Driscoll, Sam Seymour |
| 1st Qtr 2011 | 15-Feb-11 | Knowledge Management for Systems Engineering | Regina Griego, Art Pyster, Kevin Forsberg |
| 2nd Qtr 2011 | 15-May-11 | Systems of Systems and Self-Organizing Security* | Rick Dove, Ken Kepchar, Jennifer Bayuk |
| 3rd Qtr 2011 | 17 Jul 2011** | 2011 International Symposium Coverage: Denver, Co, USA | TBD |
| 4th Qtr 2011 | 15-Oct-11 | AFIS 2010 | Hervé Panetto |
| 1st Qtr 2012 | 15-Feb-12 | INCOSE Authors* | Cecilia Haskins |
The 7 Deadly Sins of Lean Integration
Lean is a hot topic in IT circles these days. The primary trigger for increased attention was the global recession, but a more fundamental force at work is that IT as a practice area has matured to the point where it can truly leverage manufacturing techniques, which is where the lean management system was perfected. Furthermore, the increased complexity of IT systems and fragmentation of data is driving the need for effective integration techniques to new heights.
Lean is not rocket science. In fact, it is largely common sense — which is the secret to its effectiveness. If you are trying to integrate systems across disparate functions and across organizations, you will have a hard time establishing and sustaining integrated solutions unless the underlying principles and methods are ones that everyone can easily understand and adopt.
While Lean is not difficult, it does require a paradigm shift; a different way of thinking and acting. To change behavior, you need to stop doing some things and start doing other things. Let’s take a look at some of the practices which are in common use across organizations that are distinctly not lean. In other words, these are things you need to stop doing……
Darpa Wants To Break the System Design Mold
Believing programs are becoming too complex for available system-engineering tools, causing delays and cost overruns, the Pentagon’s advanced research arm wants to follow the lead of the microchip industry and develop a new way to design and test systems.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Meta program goes even further by seeking to decouple development from production, to enable a “foundry-style” manufacturing model for complex defense systems similar to that in the integrated-circuit industry, where chips are no longer fabricated by their designers.
The program’s mold-breaking goals are viewed skeptically by aerospace-industry veterans, who argue the problems lie not with the system-engineering tools, but how they are used. And even Darpa acknowledges its foundry model is anathema to an industry that develops products through multiple design-build-test-redesign iterations.
Julian M. Goldman, MD Is Awarded INCOSE’s Pioneer Award for Using Systems Engineering Practices to Improve Patient Safety and Clinical Care
(Chicago 15July2010) – The International Council of Systems Engineering has awarded Julian M. Goldman, M.D. its prestigious Pioneer award for his role in practicing systems engineering in the field of medicine.
INCOSE honored Dr. Goldman for his total contribution to the field of medicine, where he is perhaps best known for founding the interdisciplinary MD PnP Interoperability Program, sometimes known as Medical Device Plug and Play, which involves medical device integration to improve patient safety and clinical care. The MD PnP development team was honored in 2007 with the CIMIT Edward M Kennedy award for Healthcare Innovation.
INCOSE Webinars
The International Council on Systems Engineering offers this free monthly web-based service to the greater Systems Engineering community.
Once a month, recognized experts in the field will present the “State of the Art” in Systems Engineering. These presentations will be conducted live, via the internet. Each will last for one hour, including opportunity for discussion and questions.
AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference Set for August 30 – September 2 in Anaheim
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will hold the AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference & Exposition August 30 – September 2 at the Anaheim Convention Center and Hilton Anaheim, Anaheim, Calif., focusing on the theme: “Space: Imagine, Innovate, Collaborate.”
The INCOSE International Symposium 2012 will take place in Rome
During the closing plenary of the European Systems Engineering Conference in 2010 (EUSEC 2010), the official announcement was made of the site chosen for the 2012 INCOSE International Symposium: Rome.
EUSEC 2012 will also coincide with INCOSE IS 2012. The organization of the event will largely be done by INCOSE International, but the members of the Region III chapters, in particular the Italian Chapter, will play an important supporting role.
Inaugural Meeting for the SoSA (System of Systems Approach) Community Forum
Steve Hitchins, Niteworks
The MOD is pleased to announce the inaugural meeting for the SoSA (System of Systems Approach) Community Forum at the Defence Capability Centre, Defence Academy, Shrivenham on 7th September.
The SoSA Community Forum is being led by the Systems Engineering & Integration Group (SEIG) at Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S). Niteworks will facilitate Community Forum meetings and provide secretarial support.
The meeting will be chaired by Mr Steve Hyde, Head of SEIG, and addressed by Mr Howard Mathers, Head of Engineering & Safety at
DE&S. This will be the first of a series of quarterly meetings where the MOD will engage with industry to brief on the development of the System of Systems Approach and solicit industry feedback and involvement.
The aim of SoSA is to deliver enhanced capability through achieving commonality, re-use and interoperability of independently procured systems.
For further information and a registration form please email steve.hitchins@niteworks.net. Please note spaces are limited and attendees must register in advance. This event is open to organisations that are not members of Niteworks so you are advised to book your place early.
INCOSE Members Take Note of New Wiley Library
As you may already know, Wiley Online Library was launched over the weekend of 7-8 August 2010. Wiley InterScience will no longer be available after Saturday 7 August at 4 am Eastern Daylight Time (9 am British Summer Time, 4 pm Singapore Standard Time).
There are revised General Registration letters posted on the Connect homepage that all new INCOSE members must use in order to gain full text access to their society journal subscription.
Systems Thinking Schools of Thought and Research
Background:
This introductory list of Systems Thinking Schools of Thought and Research has been assembled to commence with the launch of the Global Association for Systems Thinking website. The first six schools of thought (below) were those used as foundational research at the 2010 International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) Conference, held in Waterloo, Canada.
Schools of Thought:
- Cybernetics
- General Systems Theory
- Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems
- Systems Dynamics
- Viable Systems Model
- Soft/Hard Systems Thinking
Featured Society – Global Association for Systems Thinking
The Global Association for Systems Thinking claims to be the only premier Alliance and Clearinghouse in the world for Systems Thinking.
The Association wants you to join:
- If you want to make a difference in your life, team, organization, community, society or world.
- If your belief is that Systems Thinking is a better way for individuals and society to Think—Plan—Act and achieves better and more sustainable results.
- If you think that “Living Systems Thinking” is about the nature of human beings on this planet.
- If your belief is that Systems Thinking is not well understood or utilized to solve chronic societal and organizational problems.
- If you believe in “abundance” and the spirit of collaboration as a better way to live.
- If you believe that there is no central, powerful and leverageable Alliance and Clearinghouse for all the various Systems Thinkers in this world to truly make a significant difference today.
The Association claims to be the collective Leaders of the only Premier Alliance and Clearinghouse in the world, who spread the concepts, understanding, and applications of Living Systems Thinking.
Making a difference in the world is not a win-lose analytical, mechanistic approach but a holistic, integrated, synergistic approach. The Association wants to be “Your Tour Guide to the Universe of Living Systems Thinking.”
INCOSE Technical Operations
Tool Integration and Interoperability Working Group
http://www.incose.org/practice/techactivities/wg/tii/
Charter
The TIIWG Charter is to:
Foster improved productivity and quality of systems engineering through integrated tools and environments;
Provide best practices and guidelines for developing an integrated systems engineering environment;
Promote the development, validation and deployment of standards that advance the interoperability of engineering toolsets.
Leadership
Chair: John Nallon
Contact John.Nallon@incose.org for additional information or to join this group.
Published Products
ISEE Concepts of Operation (ConOps)
Integrated System Engineering Environment (ISEE)
Planned Work
List of tool bridges, interfaces, environments for Tool DB
AP233 Plugfest for Vendors
Update ISEE CONOPS
Joint Activities & Products
With MDSD – AP233 compliance for Tools DB
With MBSE – Model Transformation
Presentations
2008 International Workshop Tool Integration and Interoperability WG Summary Presentation (Size: 200K)
Systems Engineering Software Tools News
MDG Technology for SysML Released by Sparx Systems
Sparx Systems (www.sparxsystems.com), claiming to be a leading developer of UML modeling tools, announced the release of Model-Driven Generation (MDG) Technology for Systems Modeling Language (SysML). This new offering enables users of Sparx Systems’ award-winning modeling tool – Enterprise Architect – to model complex systems using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) Version 1.0.
OMG Announces New Processes Open for Participation
OMG(TM) members met in Minneapolis, MN the week of June 21-25, 2010. At this meeting members began work on five new standards processes. These processes are now open for comment and participation. The processes include:
- UML® Profile for BPMN(TM) Processes RFP
- Robotics Interaction Service (RoIS) Framework RFP
- Dynamic Deployment and Configuration for Robot Technology Components RFP
- Application Programming Interfaces for Knowledge Base(s) RFP
- SysML(TM)-Modelica RFC
Siemens PLM Connection Users Conference and Analyst Day
At the recent Siemens PLM Connection Users Conference and Analyst Day, Siemens presented a look at new markets for PLM, future directions for the company in R&D, innovation, and new technologies, and the realization of the company’s end-to-end virtual lifecycle, from concept and design to factory floor operations. Siemens Industrial Automation (IA), Siemens PLM’s parent division, is integrating and expanding its product design (CAx), collaborative product data management (cPDM), and digital manufacturing (DM) software offerings with its plant lifecycle engineering (COMOS), and manufacturing operations execution (SIMATIC IT) software. Siemens IA’s solution set now ranges from product design through manufacturing, to operations on both the plant and factory floor.
Systems Engineering Books, Reports, Articles and Papers
The Systems Thinking Playbook: Exercises to Stretch and Build Learning and Systems Thinking Capabilities
By Linda Booth Sweeney and Dennis Meadows
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing; Har/DVD edition (April 30, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1603582584
ISBN-13: 978-1603582582
Product Description:
This book has become a favorite of K-12 teachers, university faculty, and corporate consultants. It provides short gaming exercises that illustrate the subtleties of systems thinking. The companion DVD shows the authors introducing and running each of the thirty games.
The thirty games are classified by these areas of learning: Systems Thinking, Mental Models, Team Learning, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery. Each description clearly explains when, how, and why the game is useful. There are explicit instructions for debriefing each exercise as well as a list of all required materials. A summary matrix has been added for a quick glance at all thirty games. When you are in a hurry to find just the right initiative for some part of your course, the matrix will help you find it.
Linda Booth Sweeney and Dennis Meadows both have many years of experience in teaching complex concepts. This book reflects their insights. Every game works well and provokes a deep variety of new insights about paradigms, system boundaries, causal-loop diagrams, reference modes, and leverage points. Each of the thirty exercises here was tested and refined many times until it became a reliable source of learning. Some of the games are adapted from classics of the outdoor education field. Others are completely new. But all of them complement readings and lectures to help participants understand intuitively the principles of systems thinking.
Challenges in Combining SysML and MARTE for Model-Based Design of Embedded Systems
Abstract
Using model-based approaches for designing embedded systems helps abstract away unnecessary details in a manner that increases the potential for easy validation and verification, and facilitates reuse and evolution. A common practice is to use UML as the base language, possibly specialized by the so-called profiles. Despite the ever increasing number of profiles being built in many domains, there is still insufficient focus on discussing the issue of combining multiple profiles. Indeed, a single profile may not be adequate to cover all aspects required in the multidisciplinary domain of embedded systems. In this paper, we assess possible strategies for combining the SysML and MARTE profiles in a common modelling framework, while avoiding specification conflicts. We show that, despite some semantic and syntactical overlapping, the two are highly complementary for specifying embedded systems at different abstraction levels. We conclude, however, that a convergence agenda is highly desirable to align some key language features.
Satisfying Demand for Systems Engineers
The infusion of software and embedded technology into manufacturing product systems and systems components has led to an increased demand for professionals in the field of systems engineering. To help satisfy that demand, IBM forged a partnership with the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering to help prepare students for jobs in the systems engineering profession. Manufacturing Business Technology recently sat down with Mark Lefebvre, Director, IBM’s Rational Systems Marketing, to discuss the field of systems engineering, what makes it an attractive career option, the driving forces behind its growth and development, and IBM’s partnership with UCF.
The Competencies of a Business Analyst
Competencies are described as the ability to do a particular activity to prescribed standard.
The competencies can be classified into three categories
- Behaviour Skill and Personal Qualities
- Business Knowledge
- Techniques
Model-Driven Engineering Allows New Design Methods to Improve an Existing Aircraft System
There are times in the advancement of military technology when progress unexpectedly hits a bump in the tarmac to give new life to the old. Such is the case of a 25-year-old surveillance aircraft that was supposed to be replaced with an advanced design. But the new design was cancelled, and potential enhancements to the old plane are now being demonstrated using a process called model-driven engineering.
Conferences and Meetings
IIBA® Webinar Series
You are invited to join us for the next presentations in our Webinar Series.
ABC: Authors, Books and Conversations Webinar Series
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EDT (UTC/GMT -4hours)
Hans Jonasson, PMP, founder of JTC Unlimited, has over 29 years of experience in the areas of people and project management, business analysis and professional development training. His first book was titled Determining Project Requirements which was published in October 2007.
Hans is a popular speaker at PMI and IIBA® chapter meetings and conferences such as BAWorld and ProjectWorld. He is a founding member of the Southeast Michigan Chapter of IIBA and a Certified Business Analysis Professional™(CBAP®).
This webinar is for IIBA members only. Register now.
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Being a BA Series — Technical Excellence
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 12 p.m. to 1p.m. EDT (UTC/GMT -4 hours)
Presented by Tom Karasmanis
Tom is the Chief Architect of IIBA, and a very experienced BA. Over the last 25 years he has worked at all organizational levels and in various roles including project business analysis, strategic work, managing teams of BAs and more.
This webinar is open to IIBA members. Register now.
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Please note: The webinars are limited to 1000 participants, and only the first 1000 people who have logged in at the time the presentation begins will have access to the live webinar. If you receive an error message when you log in, that means 1000 people have already logged in and the session is full. If you cannot access the webinar and you are an IIBA member, you can listen to the archived event which will be available on the IIBA website.
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Questions? Please contact Tracy Cook at webinar@theiiba.org
ECAI 2010 Workshop on Intelligent Engineering Techniques for Knowledge Bases
August 16, 2010, Lisbon, Portugal
Armed Forces Systems of Systems Engineering Education Network Workshop 
August 16-17, 2010, The US Air Force Center for Systems Engineering, Building 646 at the Air Force Institute of Technology, 2950 Hobson Way, WPAFB, OH 45433
2nd International Workshop on Open Design Spaces (ODS 2010) – Socially Crafting Interactive Experiences
in conjunction with DIS 2010
August 17 2010, Aarhus, Denmark
The 7th Annual INCOSE SA Conference
August 17 – 19, 2010, CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa
The 2nd International Workshop on Enterprise Architecture Challenges and Responses
To be held in conjunction with ICIS 2010
August 18 – 20, 2010, Yamagata University, Yonezawa, Japan
The Second International Conference on Advances in System Testing and Validation Lifecycle (VALID 2010)
August 22-27, 2010 – Nice, France
Improving Systems and Software Engineering Conference (ISSEC 2010)
August 23-26, 2010
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia
INCOSE San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Systems Engineering Certification Class
August 28-29, 2010, Santa Clara, CA, USA
Foundations of Interface Technologies (FIT 2010) 
August 30th 2010, Paris, France
Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems and Simulation (MAS&S)
August 30 – Sep 3, 2010, Lyon (France)
2nd International Workshop on Model-Driven User-Centric Design & Engineering (MDUCDE’10)
September 1st & 2nd, 2010, Valenciennes/France
European Systems & Software Process Improvement and Innovation
September 1-3, 2010, Grenoble Institute of Technology, France
INTERACT 2011 – 13th IFIP TC13 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
September 05-09, 2011, Lisbon, Portugal.
Summer School 2010: Verification Technology, Systems & Applications
September, 06th-10th, 2010, University of Luxembourg, Luxemburg
3rd Workshop on Autonomic and SELF-adaptive Systems
September 8, 2010, Valencia, Spain
1st International Workshop on Reuse in Business Process Management (rBPM 2010)
September 13, 2010, Hoboken, New Jersey – USA
2010 Annual ITEA Symposium
September 13 – 16, 2010, Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa, Glendale, AZ, USA
Modeling Business Information Systems (MoBIS 2010)
September 15-17, 2010, Dresden, Germany
7th International Conference on Quantitative Evaluation of SysTems (QEST) 2010
September 15 – 18, 2010, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA at the College of William & Mary, Computer Science Department,
First International Workshop on Evolution Support for Model-Based Development and Testing (EMDT2010)
Co-located with the International Scientific Colloquium (IWK2010)
September 16, 2010, Ilmenau, Germany
15th International Workshop on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems (FMICS 2010)
September 20-21, 2010, Antwerp, Belgium
3rd International PERADA-ASSYST Summer School on Adaptive Socio-Technical Pervasive Systems
Sept. 20-27 2010, Europa Conference Center, Budapest, Hungary
12th International Workshop on Verification of Infinite-State Systems (INFINITY 2010)
September 21, 2010, Singapore
8th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2010)
September 21-24, 2010, Singapore
EPEW 2010: 7th European Performance Engineering Workshop
University Residential Center of Bertinoro, Italy
September 23-24, 2010
Challenges of Systems Engineering – International Workshop (RuSEC2010)
September 23-24, 2010, Moscow, Russia
ACM International Conference on Design of Communication (SIGDOC’10)
September 26-29, 2010, São Carlos – São Paulo – Brazil
1st Brazilian Workshop on Model-Driven Development
September 27, 2010, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Fourth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2010)
September 27-October 1, 2010, Budapest, Hungary
Workshop on Socio-Economics Inspiring Self-Managed Systems and Concepts (SEISMYC 2010)
Located at SASO 2010
September 27th, 2010, Budapest, Hungary
Doctoral Symposium @ RE2010
September 27, 2010, Sydney, Australia
Third International Workshop on Managing Requirements Knowledge (MaRK’10)
September 27, 2010, Sydney, Australia
54th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
September 27-October 1, 2010, San Francisco
The 18th International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2010)
Sep 27, 2010 – Oct 1, 2010, Sydney, Australia
Fourth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2010)
September 27-October 1, 2010, Budapest, Hungary
Model-based Testing and Test Automation – From Research into Practice (MoTes2010)
September 27 – October 2, Leipzig, Germany
Fifth International Conference on Graph Transformation
September 27 – October 2, 2010. University Of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
REET’10 Fifth International Workshop on Requirements Engineering Education and Training
In conjunction with the 18th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference
September 28, 2010, Sydney, Australia
RELAW’10 Third International Workshop on Requirements Engineering and Law
In conjunction with the 18th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference
September 28, 2010, Sydney, Australia
REV’10 Fifth International Workshop on Requirements Engineering Visualization
In conjunction with the 18th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference
September 28, 2010 – Sydney, Australia
1st Workshop on The Web and Requirements Engineering (WeRE’10)
To be held in conjunction with the RE 2010 Joint Conference
September 28, 2010, Sydney, Australia
4th International Workshop on Graph Based Tools
A satellite event of ICGT’10
September 28th 2010, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Second Annual Medical Device Connectivity Conference & Exhibition 
September 28-29, 2010, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, San Diego, CA
INCOSE is a supporting organization of this conference. Our members will receive a $100 discount on registrations. Click on this link for additional information:
9th International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Methods in verification (PDMC 2010)
Joint with 2nd International Workshop on High Performance Computational Systems Biology (HiBi 2010)
September 30 – October 1, 2010, Twente, The Netherlands
Co-locating with
5th International Conference on Graph Transformation (ICGT 2010) , 29 September – 1 October, 2010
17th Annual workshop on Software Model Checking (SPIN 2010), 27 September – 29 September, 2010
4th Annual INCOSE Great Lakes Regional Conference Systems Engineering: Managing Today’s Complexity
October 01 – 03, 2010, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
First Workshop on Model Driven Interoperability (MDI’2010)
In Conjunction with Models 2010
October 3-5, 2010, Oslo, Norway
3rd International Workshop on Model Based Architecting and Construction of Embedded Systems
In Conjunction with Models 2010
October 3-5, 2010, Oslo, Norway
5th International Workshop models@run.time
In Conjunction with Models 2010
October 3-8, 2010, Oslo, Norway
Workshop on OCL and Textual Modelling
In Conjunction with Models 2010
October 3-8, 2010, Oslo, Norway
4th International Workshop on Multi-Paradigm Modeling – MPM’10
In Conjunction with Models 2010
October 3-8, 2010, Oslo, Norway
ACM/IEEE 13th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems
October 3-8, 2010, Oslo, Norway
Fourth Asia-Pacific Conference on Systems Engineering (APCOSE 2010)
October 4-6, 2010. Keelung, Taiwan.
2010 isee User Conference
October 4-6, 2010, The Westin Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
IFM 2010: Integrated Formal Methods 8th International Conference
October 11 – 14, 2010, Nancy, France
INCOSE LA Mini-Conference 2010
October 16, 2010, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA
Sixth Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2010)
October 16 – 20, Reykjavik Iceland
World Engineering Congress and Exhibition: ENGINEERING 2010 – ARGENTINA:
“Technology, Innovation and Production for Sustainable Development”
October 17 – 20 2010, Buenos Aires, Argentina
International Conference on Lean Enterprise and Systems (LESS 2010) 
October 17 – 20, 2010, Helsinki, Finland
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Conference
October 17-21, 2010, Alexandria, VA, USA
Business Analysis Forum 
October 17-22, Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, VA, USA
SPLASH 2010 Workshop on Flexible Modeling Tools 
October 18, 2010, Reno Nevada, USA
Dynamic Languages Symposium 2010
Co-located with SPLASH 2010
In cooperation with ACM SIGPLAN (PENDING)
October 18, 2010, Reno, Nevada, USA
SEAri Research Summit 2010
October 19, 2010, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
FMCAD 2010 – Formal Methods in Computer Aided Design
October 20 – 23, 2010, Lugano, Switzerland
MIT Systems Thinking Conference
October 21-22,2010 , Broad Auditorium, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
NDIA 13th Annual Systems Engineering Conference
October 25-28, 2010, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, San Diego, CA, USA
Requirements Days 2010
October 26 – 28, 2010, Mϋnchen, Germany
2010 Huntsville Simulation Conference (HSC2010) 
October 26-28, 2010, Huntsville Marriott, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
5th International Workshop on Enterprise Integration, Interoperability and Networking (EI2N’2010)
October 27-28, 2010, Hersonissou, Crete, Greece
Complex Systems Design & Management 2010
October 27-29, 2010, Paris, France
12th IEEE International High Assurance Systems Engineering Symposium (HASE 2010)
Co-Located with the 21st IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE)
November 1-4, 2010, San Jose, CA, USA
29th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling
November 1-4, 2010, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Seventh International Workshop on Web Information Systems Modeling (WISM 2010)
(Held in conjunction with ER 2010)
November 1-4, 2010, Vancouver, BC, Canada
25th International Forum on COCOMO and Systems/Software Cost Modeling 
November 2-5, 2010, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2010 IITA International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems Engineering (CASE 2010)
Nov 7, 2010 – Nov 8, 2010. Taipei, Taiwan
No Magic World Conference
November 7-10th, 2010, American Airlines Conference Center, Fort Worth, TX
Annual Systems Engineering Conference 2010 (ASEC10)
November 8-10, 2010, Heythrop Park Hotel, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, UK
SEPG Latin America 2010
November 10-12, 2010, Medellín, Colombia
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
Fall Symposium: Complex Adaptive Systems: Resilience, Robustness, and Evolvability
November 11 – 13, 2010, Arlington, VA
5th Trends in Enterprise Architecture Research (TEAR2010) workshop
November 12, 2010 as part of the Enterprise Engineering Week at the Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands from the 9th of November to the 12th of November
CMMI 10th Annual Technology Conference and User Group
November 15-18, 2010
Hyatt Regency Tech Center – Denver, Colorado, USA
Third IEEE International workshop UML and Formal Methods
Held in conjunction with the 12th International Conference on Formal Engineering Methods, ICFEM 2010
November 16th, 2010, Shanghai, China
5th International Forum on Engineering Education (IFEE2010) & European SDPROMO II Conference
November 23 – 25, 2010, Sharjah-Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates
1st International Chemical and Environmental Engineering Conference 2010
November 26 – 28, 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
22nd International Conference Software & Systems Engineering and their Applications (ICSSEA 2010)
December 7-9, 2010, Paris, France
National Institute of Technology – National Systems Conference 2010
December 10-12, 2010, National Institute Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, India
ICISE 2010: International Conference on Intelligent Systems Engineering
December 18, 2010, Bangkok, Thailand
ICECSE 2011 “International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering”
January 25-27, 2011, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Second International Conference on Exploring Services Sciences (IESS 1.1) 
February 16-17-18, 2011, Geneva, Switzerland
Second ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering
(ICPE 2011)
March 14-16, 2011 Karlsruhe, Germany
Design, Automation & Test in Europe
March 14-18, 2011, Grenoble, France
26th Symposium on Applied Computing
March 21 – 25, 2011, Tunghai University, TaiChung, Taiwan
Requirements Engineering Track – 4th Edition 
part of the 26th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
March 21 – 25, 2011, Tunghai University, TaiChung, Taiwan
IWEI 2011 – The International Working Conference on Enterprise Interoperability
March 22-24, 2011, Stockholm, Sweden
IEEE International Systems Conference 
April 4-7, 2011, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Risk-Based Approaches to Major Decisions (Risk ’11)
May 13 – 14, 2011, Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Education and Academia
Ackoff Collaboratory for Advancement of the Systems Approach (ACASA)
ACASA is dedicated to education, research and service to industry, government and education, using systems sciences and systems thinking and global knowledge and competency resources.
Under the auspices of ACASA faculty from Engineering, Wharton, Medicine and other schools at the University of Pennsylvania work on multi-disciplinary research topics. “The intention is for ACASA to develop innovative ideas in systems approaches that will enable the Center to evolve into a world class institution with contributions to solving intractable problems, wherever they exist,” says Eduardo Glandt, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. ACASA will extend its offerings beyond the walls of Penn through the application of information technology and the Internet and plans a competency bank of knowledge for all Systems Thinking-related academic activities, research and practices that are scattered around the world.
The corporate membership program will allow for close liaison with leading edge companies for industry-sponsored research and short-term Fellows from industry to work on intellectually challenging projects with standing faculty and students. Further, ACASA will provide opportunities for student internships to further enhance the educational mission of the University.
S&T Ph.D. Student Receives INCOSE Doctoral Award
Jason Dauby, a subject matter expert with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division from Crane, Ind., has received the 2010 INCOSE/Stevens Doctoral Award from the International Council on Systems Engineering. Dauby was honored for his research in systems engineering and integration. The award was presented earlier this month at the annual INCOSE International Symposium in Chicago.
Dauby’s research, conducted as part of his Ph.D. program at Missouri University of Science and Technology, focused on the development and use of the Canonical Decomposition Fuzzy Comparative (CDFC) approach as a stable, repeatable and analytically rigorous architecture assessment method. It provides a more realistic and objective assessment of physical system architectures.
Khalifa University Expands Senior Faculty Team
Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR) announced that Prof. Chelsea White has joined its team as the Department Chair, Industrial Systems Engineering and Director of the Logistics Institute.
In his new role, Prof. White will help establish the curriculum for KUSTAR’s Systems Engineering program and recruit systems engineering faculty members. He will also be providing leadership for the Logistics Institute, as well as support in the enrollment of personnel. He will be based at the University’s Abu Dhabi campus.
U.Va. Master’s Program for Systems Engineers Helps Companies Streamline
Students in the University of Virginia’s Accelerated Master’s Program in Systems Engineering take on challenging “systems” problems – researching, for example, how to more effectively deliver time-critical blood platelets to patients, or analyzing hazardous materials transportation procedures for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
These applied research projects are the culmination of the program’s curriculum, which is designed to strengthen practicing engineers’ analytical and problem-solving skills. The projects also significantly benefit the organizations that engage the students in the projects.
Some Systems Engineering-Relevant Websites
The Global Association for Systems Thinking claims to be the only premier Alliance and Clearinghouse in the world for Systems Thinking.
Standards and Guides
Tutorial: Architectural Rendering with ISO/IEC 42010
At 4th European Conference on Software Architecture
August 23, 2010, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
IEEE Standard 1471, Recommended Practice for Architectural Description of Software-Intensive Systems, was published in 2000 as the first standard aimed at architecture description. In 2007, it was adopted by ISO and since then has been jointly updated by IEEE and ISO as ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, Systems and software engineering — Architecture description.
This tutorial introduces the key concepts and mechanisms of the newly revised standard, in the context of practical approaches to architectural rendering of software-intensive systems.
New ISO standard will help space projects learn from experience
A new ISO standard will help space systems manufacturers and operators to improve the quality of products and to work more efficiently by distilling principles and guidelines based on experience acquired in previous space projects.
Nick Tongson, secretary of the group that developed ISO 16192:2010, comments: “The increasingly global nature of the aerospace industry has increased the demand for International Standards which facilitate co-production efforts, reduce costs and eliminate trade barriers. ISO 16192:2010 will help the sector to achieve these objectives as well as to improve quality.”
An efficient method of processing lessons learned is essential for ongoing efficiency and quality improvement inside any organization, as well as for successful project management.
With these aims, the use of ISO 16192:2010, Space systems – Experience gained in space projects (Lessons learned) – Principles and guidelines, will help to:
- Decrease errors (in terms of both quantity and gravity)
- Improve working methods
- Decrease risk of nonconformity to specified objectives (management, technical, quality, costs and schedules).
A Definition to Close on
TBD
PPI News
TBD
PPI Events (see www.ppi-int.com)
Systems Engineering Public 5-Day Courses (2010)
{Julie to plug in list by location to end of December 2010}
Requirements Analysis and Specification Writing Public Courses (2010)
{ Julie to plug in list by location to end of December 2010 }
Software Engineering Public 5-Day Courses (2010)
{ Julie to plug in list by location to end of December 2010 }
OCD/CONOPS Public Courses (2010)
{ Julie to plug in list by location to end of December 2010 }
Cognitive Systems Engineering Courses (2010)
{ Julie to plug in list by location to end of December 2010 }
PPI Upcoming Participation in Professional Conferences
{Julie to plug in – cover the rest of 2009 and to July 2010}
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