Simultaneous and collaborative development of satellites and Information Systems to support their lifecycle processes

Systems engineering is a transdisciplinary scientific and applied direction that combines the principles of a systems approach, methods, tools and standards that provide an integrated methodology and relevant technologies for the design and development of complex systems, their comprehensive analysis and verification, efficient and safe use. The modern approach to systems engineering is characterized by an accentuated modeling of systems throughout their life cycle with the ultimate goal of creating their digital twins. It is called model-based systems engineering (MBSE). Consistent integration of MBSE with software engineering leads to the formation of the MBSSE (Model-Based Systems and Software Engineering) direction. This textbook is devoted to this area, the main objective of which is to study the conceptual and scientific-methodological foundations of MBSE and MBSSE, models and methods of life cycle management of systems and software, basic standards of systems engineering, study and mastery of the UML and SysML systems modeling languages and the corresponding modeling tools, study of requirements engineering methods and development of a description of the system architecture, familiarization with the concept of digital twins and their role in MBSE, study of the MBSSE reference model and its relationship with the process standards of systems engineering, study of the methodological aspects of the system and software integration process. The final chapter of the textbook is devoted to the study of the mathematical foundations of systems engineering. The main aspects of the mathematical theory of systems by A. Wayne Wymore, which became an important stimulus for the development of the model-oriented approach in systems engineering, and modern research, including the apparatus of finite automata by David Harel, the formalism of modeling of discrete systems DEVS, research into category theory as a formal mathematical basis for model-based system design are considered. The authors recommend this course as a basic course for training IT professionals.

This paper investigates the oversimplification of the inherently complex systems engineering process in space life support. The standard systems engineering process steps are described. The International Space Station (ISS) life support system is explained with its goals and performance criteria. Although it is not usually emphasized, the essential function of developing a hierarchy of systems and subsystems is to simplify the design process. The System Complexity Metric (SCM) shows how this divide‐and‐conquer approach also reduces the system complexity. The complete systems engineering process has many detailed steps. It is often simplified because of the effort required and the human limitations on working memory and decision span. Systems analysis demands slow, logical, and focused thinking but is often bypassed in favor of quick, intuitive, subconscious “gut feel.” A study of 100 system designs found examples of 12 specific mental mistakes, such as ignoring stakeholder needs, and these mistakes are essentially oversimplifications of the systems engineering process. An analysis of space life support goals, options, criteria, and processes found 11 examples of oversimplifications in systems engineering, such as neglecting safety and cost. All these 11 oversimplifications could be traced to one or more of the 12 previously identified mental mistakes or other well‐known ones, such as ignoring sunk costs. Oversimplification of the systems engineering process is rarely noticed but is a common and harmful problem. A study of failures in 50 different space systems found that problems in systems engineering caused failures and often led to errors in design, development, and test that further contributed to failure. It seems that more diligent systems engineering could prevent many project problems and failures, but projects seem to be more guided by “gut feel” based on tradition, authority, and consensus than on the logical, rational systems engineering approach.

Nowadays, in software, electronics and automotive industries, it takes 1.5–2 years for a new product to appear, although it takes 3 or even more years to develop new space instruments. The update of higher education system standards is even more conservative. It takes 10 or more years. Because of this, graduates come into the industry with outdated knowledge. Thus, the problem is to synchronize the processes of updating technologies that ensure the creation of innovative products with educational programs. It can be solved by changing the paradigm of products creation based on the synthesis of deep and interdisciplinary educational, scientific, innovative and production activities with the model-based systems engineering software and methodological tools.The existing model-based systems engineering (MBSE) Software (SW) tools based on the Systems Modelling Language (SysML) are complex and expensive. This chapter raises the question, “Is it possible to make use of MBSE SW and methodological tools available to a wide audience of users?” To answer this question, the following MBSE approaches and tools were researched: Quality Function Deployment (QFD), House of Quality (HoQ), and SysML. Consequently, five methodological tools were developed for application during space instruments design and development life cycle stages. Tools are based on SysML, QFD, HoQ improvements and synthesis, and expressed in theoretical and practical algorithms.The theoretical algorithm determines “What” (input and output data) and “How” (by using which systems engineering (including MBSE) tools are methodically analysed at the certain space instruments life cycle stage. The practical algorithm automates the development of SysML diagrams by using data structured in HoQ models and widely available SW. It reduces the time to develop and update SysML requirements diagrams from several days to some minutes and enables implementation of SysML SW by many users. Altogether, the obtained results constitute the software and methodological toolkit (SMT) called “improved Quality Function Deployment for improved House of Quality”.To disseminate the obtained results, educational materials were created and validated during lectures on systems engineering. Lectures were supplemented with seminars and practicum. Practicum was focused on the design and development (D&D) of nanosatellites in the MBSE paradigm as the single project. The results showed that the developed SMT makes it possible to implement the life cycle of the cyber-physical system in the MBSE paradigm in a cost-effective way and a short time—in 6 months, students developed, conducted synthesis and flight tests of CubeSat-format satellite prototype and prepared the project documentation. In addition, students were motivated to study science, technology, engineering and math disciplines, MBSE tools, and become transdisciplinary specialists.In addition, developed SysML requirements models were applied to examine the “Preliminary Design” product life cycle (PLC) stage of different space projects. Such application allowed quick assessment of project results, identifying non-compliance with requirements, conducting beforehand all necessary corrections and generating correct new product documentation. Taking into account the mentioned advantages of the obtained MBSE SMT, it can be concluded that its usage improves the quality and accuracy of current projects and speeds up the planning process of future analogue projects by up to 60%. Consequently, projects (their life cycle stages) can be realized faster by 5–10%.These results allow to recommend for all interested in the innovative D&D of systems to initiate: formation of educational programs based on the project approach and MBSE paradigm; preparation of MBSE materials for online and offline teaching of students and teachers; development of domestic widely available software for the development of integrated SysML models with HoQ models that assures synchronization with CAE/CAD/CAM systems; support these recommendations for the implementation of the above-mentioned research results at educational organizations of different levels. The future research is focused on the application of the developed MBSE methodological toolkit during design and development with numerical modelling and operation of several CubeSat satellites.KeywordsSystems engineeringMBSEParadigmMethodological toolkitSysMLQFDHoQ

In this article, we discuss how we can facilitate the growing need for early validation and verification (V&V) of system behaviour in Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSyE). Several aspects, such as reducing cost and time to market, push companies towards integration of V&V methods earlier in development to support effective decision-making. One foundational methodology seeing increased attention in industry is the use of MBSyE, which brings benefits of models with well-defined syntax and semantics to support V&V activities, rather than relying on natural language text documentation. Despite their promise, industrial adoption of these practices is still challenging. This article presents a vision for readily available early V&V . We present a summary of the literature on early V&V in MBSyE and position existing challenges regarding potential solutions and future investigations towards this vision. We elaborate our vision by means of challenges with a specific emphasis on early V&V of system behaviour . We identify three specific challenge areas: Creating and managing Models , Organisational systems engineering aspects, and early V&V Methods . Finally, we outline a road-map to address these categories of challenges, in which we propose the transfer of established best practices from the software engineering domain to support emerging technologies in the systems engineering domain.

There is a strong need in new approaches and curricula in different disciplines, especially in the domain of software engineering and information systems. The aim of the paper is to discuss the body of knowledge teaching methods, and assessment principles in realization of Information System course jointly by staff from two countries. This experience is gained in realization of Information System Development Process (ISDP) course, developed under the project Joint MSc Curriculum in Software Engineering, which established a regional wide master's software engineering curriculum with international recognition.

As that of coordination and ISO 15288, discipline system engineering and software engineering processes, methods have a lot in common, and concerns. In most of the system software interest, now offers an important function, more and more is the most significant factors determine the non-functional attributes. In the implementation of the system collection and failure are often attributed to the system and/or software engineering recovery. Need to use systems engineering software design and development, and need to incorporate software engineering concepts into system engineering, suggests that the decision of the two disciplines the close relationship between is appropriate. This article describes a definite theory integrating the two disciplines, defines a framework on establishing a vocabulary integration, and gives the use of this framework preliminary results to describe the system and software integration of defense plans.

This paper describes research into the application of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools and processes to Risk-Informed Design (RID). RID enables system risk analyses early in the lifecycle of spaceflight projects allowing designers to use risk as a design commodity and part of the overall trade space. RID uses a “minimum functionality” approach, whereby a minimal, single-string system design is first envisioned that only meets basic performance requirements without any regard to overall reliability or safety. Risk analyses are then used to apply informed design enhancements based on their contribution to risk reduction. A recent application of RID was the Altair Lunar Lander Project that was intended for human lunar exploration under NASA’s Constellation Program. The Altair project’s approach and results are reviewed and analyzed in this paper as a specific application of RID. In traditional projects, several tools such as Relex, Windchill or SAPHIRE, are used in parallel to apply risk informed design techniques. These analyses also traditionally occur later in the design cycle when changes are more difficult to implement. Safety and reliability analyses typically have no direct connection with the system architecture model, which accurately depicts the physical and functional constructs of a system, including the “ilities.” The model is directly impacted by the results of the analyses. This creates a time-consuming iterative process of analyses and modification because of the need to integrate several tools and teams. To improve this process, the research described here investigated the use of a single, cloud-based MBSE CAD tool called Innoslate that integrates failure analysis into the system architecture model. The specific focus of the research was on the analysis of system failure events through the use of a system architecture-modeling tool and the establishment of an MBSE process that enables system engineers to make risk-informed system modifications during development. The conclusion of the research was that MBSE in general, and Innoslate specifically, is capable of providing an integrated, effective and quantitative means of developing a risk-informed system design using a minimum functionality baseline process. This can be applied to human and robotic spaceflight systems and other systems with similar complexity. The research demonstrated that random distributions could be added to failure probabilities in order to add “noise” to the results, a task that can be laborious, if not impossible, if performed using a calculator or spreadsheet. The research also demonstrated an end-to-end MBSE process that was applied to a basic system model and the Altair Project. Recommendations for future work conclude the paper.

Completing its final development and early deployment on the Navy's multi-role aircraft, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, the SHAred Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) provides the war fighter with the latest digital tactical reconnaissance (TAC Recce) Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor system. The SHARP program is an evolutionary acquisition that used a spiral development process across a prototype development phase tightly coupled into overlapping Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) and Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phases. Under a tight budget environment with a highly compressed schedule, SHARP challenged traditional acquisition strategies and systems engineering (SE) processes. Adopting tailored state-of-the-art systems engineering process models allowd the SHARP program to overcome the technical knowledge transition challenges imposed by a compressed program schedule. The program's original goal was the deployment of digital TAC Recce mission capabilities to the fleet customer by summer of 2003. Hardware and software integration technical challenges resulted from requirements definition and analysis activities performed across a government-industry led Integrated Product Team (IPT) involving Navy engineering and test sites, Boeing, and RTSC-EPS (with its subcontracted hardware and government furnished equipment vendors). Requirements development from a bottoms-up approach was adopted using an electronic requirements capture environment to clarify and establish the SHARP EMD product baseline specifications as relevant technical data became available. Applying Earned-Value Management (EVM) against an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) resulted in efficiently managing SE task assignments and product deliveries in a dynamically evolving customer requirements environment. Application of Six Sigma improvement methodologies resulted in the uncovering of root causes of errors in wiring interconnectivity drawings, pod manufacturing processes, and avionics requirements specifications. Utilizing the draft NAVAIR SE guideline handbook and the ANSI/EIA-632 standard: Processes for Engineering a System, a systems engineering tailored process approach was adopted for the accelerated SHARP EMD prgram. Tailoring SE processes in this accelerated product delivery environment provided unique opportunities to be technically creative in the establishment of a product performance baseline. This paper provides an historical overview of the systems engineering activities spanning the prototype phase through the EMD SHARP program phase, the performance requirement capture activities and refinement process challenges, and what SE process improvements can be applied to future SHARP-like programs adopting a compressed, evolutionary spiral development acquisition paradigm.

This is an era which the ELT telescopes define 'the new science' for astronomy. Thus, to make optimal contribution (i.e. valuable scientific output in an efficient, sustainable manner), a mid class telescope such as DAG 4m, must have a carefully designed Systems Architecture, which, in our opinion, could only be possible by means of a proper Systems Engineering (SE) process. From a Platonic perspective, the SE work must be started well before (at least conceptually), even the 'idea' of erecting an observatory. As can be seen from the experiences, this, however, never happens, and also it did not happen in our case. Regarding the facts given above, a SE process for DAG observatory has been initiated soon. As a bunch of constraints had already been formed, the work primarily focuses on the scientific instrumentation. This paper demonstrates various phases of the SE process carried until now. We will also discuss the methodologies/techniques that are planned to be used in the future.

The objective of this paper is to show how a system composed of many individually designed and manufactured components each with independent descriptive and analytical models of varying definition can be developed and managed by an integrated systems model. Typical engineering design methods require the engineering team to manually coordinate and integrate the engineering domains: electrical, hydraulic, mechanical, software, etc. This effort can take an inordinate amount of time and resources and is rife with errors, which inevitably lead to specification issues. Model-based system engineering (MBSE) is a method used extensively in the military and aerospace industries to reduce component integration and system development time for complex systems. This paper examines methods used to integrate the component models during development of a design for a subsea system. The authors describe the application of a commercially available MBSE toolset extended to integrate with analytical physics based design software. The challenges, advantages, disadvantages, and suggested improvements for integrating the models are explored. The authors discuss how their process supports the domains of system engineering including: requirements, behavior, physical architectures and verification strategies, and how this intimately aligns with the typical engineering domains. Finally, the authors discuss the development of an application programming interface (API) to integrate the models and manage the transfer of data between disparate software tool sets and provide suggestions for future projects of similar complexity. The paper discusses how the methods applied reduce duplicate work and specification errors, achieving a reduction in rework, and ultimately, development time and cost. The MBSE methodology has not typically been applied broadly in energy. This paper highlights a successful deployment of MBSE covering early stages of conceptual design to manufacturing. The API developed to permit seamless integration of multiple systems engineering development tools is unique for this type of application. The interoperability between development tools is highly sought after in the engineering community and enables many advanced capabilities for development teams. Some of these capabilities include: end-to-end traceability, automated model development, automated design verification, and automated document generation and design specification.

Traditional document‐based practices in systems engineering are being transitioned to model‐based ones. Adoption of model‐based systems engineering (MBSE) continues to grow in industry and government, and MBSE continues to be a major research theme in the systems engineering community. In fact, MBSE remains a central element in the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)’s vision for 2025. Examining systems engineering literature, this paper presents an assessment of the extent to which benefits and value of MBSE are supported by empirical evidence. A systematic review of research and practice papers in major systems engineering archival journals and conference proceedings was conducted. Evidence was categorized in four types, two of which inductively emerged from the results: measured, observed (without a formal measurement process), perceived (claimed without evidence), and backed by other references. Results indicate that two thirds of claimed MBSE benefits are only supported by perceived evidence, while only two papers reported measured evidence. The aggregate assessment presented in this paper indicates that claims about the value and benefits of MBSE are mainly based on expectation. We argue that evidence supporting the value and benefits of MBSE remains inconclusive.

Thirty Years of International Symposia on Process Systems Engineering

Combine the key concepts of MBSE with the essentials of their practical application. This tutorial is designed help you leverage model‐based techniques to better meet the engineering challenges of analyzing stakeholder needs and defining system solutions. The tutorial uses a practical top‐down system analysis and design example and exercise to explore the application of layered model‐based systems engineering (MBSE) to system definition challenges. It examines the range of views available to the systems engineer for understanding and communicating design choices and provides a practical introduction to constructing the model and generating each representation. As the analysis and design advances, the engineer will use a wide variety of views drawn from traditional and SysML representations to portray aspects of the model and gain understanding of stakeholder concerns and the design choices to be made. This tutorial works for both new and experienced systems engineers, capability analysts and others working on an integrated project team, and program/project/capability managers. While a basic understanding of the systems engineering process is assumed, the MBSE framework and approach provide the foundation for those not experienced in systems engineering. The detailed discussion of MBSE methodology and model representations including SysML and traditional SE products delivers value for all but the most experienced model‐based systems analysts and engineers. This is an MBSE methods, models, and representations tutorial, not a tool tutorial. The focus is on the practical application of essential MBSE for project success. The concepts taught and methods shared are applicable regardless of the systems engineering tools the attendee may choose.

Objectives . Agile methodologies are crucial in software engineering and information systems (IS) development. However, traditional training methods can struggle to convey abstract theoretical concepts effectively and may lead to reduced engagement. We propose that combining several learning methodologies and incorporating serious games and gamification strategies in training can offer a more innovative and engaging approach to improve comprehension. This article outlines a game-based learning strategy designed to instruct information systems students in agile development. Our approach is rooted in active learning principles, incorporating methodologies such as problem/project-based learning, microlearning, collaborative learning, and learning by doing. The course design unfolds in two phases. Initially, participants delve into short, serious games that vividly demonstrate theoretical concepts, followed by brief moments of theoretical exposition. In the subsequent phase, participants apply all the knowledge they have acquired through an extensive project. To illustrate and evaluate the overall process, this approach was implemented to teach Scrum in several training courses. Participants . The participants in this study were information technology and systems students at different academic levels. Study Method . The research model adopted in this work is based on the Design Science Research (DSR) method. Adhering to the DSR method, the study advanced through distinct phases: recognizing the challenge of engaging Agile Development education, formulating a solution with a course design that blends game-based learning and diverse learning methodologies, developing the course artifact, practically implementing it with Scrum with several groups in different contexts, and assessing its effectiveness using pre- and post-course quizzes. The course aimed to instruct participants in agile methods within information system development. Findings . Feedback from the courses was clearly positive, with participants expressing a preference for the proposed game-based approach over traditional expository lecture methods. Pre- and post-course knowledge quizzes revealed a noteworthy increase in correct answers and overall scores in the end. Conclusions . The novelty lies in an integrated approach that combines multiple active learning methodologies—such as game-based learning, microlearning, collaborative learning, project-based learning, and learning by doing—to facilitate the comprehension of theoretical concepts through practical application.

This paper describes and expands upon the proposed System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) Process Framework for the Air Force Materiel Command first outlined in IEEE SoSE 2011. Through repeated uses, it became quickly understood that systems-of-systems processes were foundationally similar to but different from basic systems engineering processes. The SoSE Process Framework, supporting processes, and products provide a context to integrate across modern complex systems-of-systems. In defining the SoSE Process Framework we tailor existing systems engineering processes and add a minimal amount of SoS-level engineering to it. The four core SoSE processes, Architecture and Analysis, Test and Evaluation, Management and Governance together can help to successfully deliver integrated capabilities at the SoS and Enterprise level within the U.S. Air Force. The key concept introduced is the alignment of analysis and engineering efforts across the Enterprise System Engineering and Architecting realm, and the synchronization of decision making within the SoSE components. The paper concludes by discussing implications of the SoSE Process Framework, as well as recommendations for actions, products, key stakeholder decisions and future challenges.