At the recent INCOSE Symposium in Detroit we had an opportunity to discuss the continually increasing interest around model-based systems engineering (MBSE) with many of the attendees across a variety of industries. The interest in MBSE is not that surprising with this group, but not only did we discuss the technical and engineering value proposition of MBSE, we also had lots of interesting sideline conversations about the adoption and best practices around optimizing the impact of MBSE in different organizations.

It seems we are no longer spending the majority of our conversations discussing the technical merits of MBSE – I guess everyone has pretty much accepted that fact – but now companies are more focused on maximizing the value of MBSE.

These conversations brought to mind recent research work done by Tech-Clarity highlighting the difference between Top Performers’ value return on MBSE adoption vs other companies. Their research did a good job examining the best practices of leading MBSE adopters and quantified the difference they achieved in potential payback.

They found that Top Performers go ‘all-in’ when they adopt MBSE. They ensure their staff are trained, their management is championing the technology, and they are addressing cultural resistance to adoption. They also ensure that their models will be an integral part of their larger engineering process: versioning, traceability, reporting, V&V, change management. This helps them organize their work around their models as well as subject their models to practices that result in high-quality models. In other words, better models aligned with better requirements and other engineering artifacts, making use of models throughout the entire development lifecycle versus having a ‘one-off’ tool.

This is certainly part of our vision for the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) solution. ELM suite components share a common data foundation, which provides data transparency and traceability, enables a digital the digital thread, and lays the foundation for digital engineering.

Have you looked closely at how Rhapsody and the Rhapsody Model Manager can help your teams design and deliver better produces and systems?

Visit the IBM ELM Quick Start modules and IBM ELM web site to learn more.

Blog by: Brian Sanders