The Following Are the Minutes from the OMG Systems Engineering Domain Special Interest

The Following Are the Minutes from the OMG Systems Engineering Domain Special Interest

Systems Engineering Domain Special Interest Group (SE DSIG)

Orlando Meeting Minutes (March 23 - 28, 2003)

The following are the minutes for the OMG SE DSIG at the OMG technical meeting in Orlando, Florida on March 23 - 28, 2003. We achieved a major milestone at this meeting by issuing the UML for Systems Engineering RFP.

Sanford Friedenthal

OMG SE DSIG Chair / INCOSE Liaison to OMG

Lockheed Martin Corporation

(703) 293-5557

The minutes and associated documents listed below are available from the SE DSIG URL at under the Orlando 2003 Meeting.

  • OMG SE DSIG Orlando Meeting Minutes (syseng/03-03-02) – S. Friedenthal
  • UMLTM for Systems Engineering RFP (ad/03-03-41)
  • U2P Activity Diagram Support for Systems Engineering – C. Bock
  • UML Representation of DoDAF views – A. Moore (To be provided)

UMLTM for Systems Engineering RFP

The UML for Systems Engineering RFP was issued by the OMG Platform Technical Committee (PTC) at the Orlando meeting. This represents a key milestone in the joint INCOSE/OMG SE DSIG effort that held its kickoff meeting in September 2001. The focus for this effort from the beginning has been to establish the requirements for a general-purpose systems modeling language to analyze, specify, design, and verify complex systems. The RFP includes the specific requirements for the language in Section 6, and the general guidance to submitters in the remaining sections. The next phase of this effort will focus on developing a UML Profile that addresses the requirements of the RFP. Initial Submissions will be evaluated at the November 2003 OMG meeting, and revised submissions will be evaluated at the April 2004 meeting per the schedule in the RFP.

Thanks to the OMG Analysis and Design Task Force headed by Jim O’Dell and Cris Kobryn, the Architecture Board Members including Pete Rivett and Tom Rutt, the SE DSIG members including Roger Burkhart and many others, the INCOSE Technical Board headed by Bill Mackey, the INCOSE MTTC headed by Mark Sampson, and the ISO AP-233 Working Group headed by Jim U’Ren for their support in this important effort. This should result in a significant positive impact on the practice of systems engineering.

SE DSIG Meeting, Wednesday, March 26, 2003

The SE DSIG met on Wednesday, March 26, 2003, and included approximately 15 attendees. Discussion topics included the following:

  • U2P Activity Diagram Support for Systems Engineering
  • UML Representation of DoDAF views
  • Follow-on SE DSIG Roadmap

Each of these is summarized briefly below.

U2P Activity Diagram Support for Systems Engineering

Conrad Bock presented a summary of his paper and presentation regarding the U2P Activity Diagram and how it maps to systems engineering extended functional flow block diagrams (EFFBD). This works was done as part of the SE DSIG/U2P Collaboration to help ensure that the U2P proposal for UML 2 addresses systems engineering needs. Conrad used the paper by Jim Long entitled “Relationships Between Common Graphical Representations in Systems Engineering” as a reference for the mapping. This work indicates that the EFFBD’s that systems engineers have used for many years to represent system behavior, can be generally represented by the proposed U2P activity diagrams. In addition, the U2P activity diagrams provide some additional features that may aid the systems engineer. These diagrams should provide an important assist to the systems engineering community to transition to UML for SE.

UML Representation of DoDAF views

Tom Wheeler and Loring Berhnardt from Mitre led a discussion on the use of UML in support of the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF). The DoDAF V1.0 draft includes reference to UML representations. Dwayne Hardy introduced the Architecture Framework as specified by IEEE 1471, to provide additional context for the DoDAF architectural views. Alan Moore from Artisan, presented a summary of his interpretation of the UML representation as described in the DoDAF V1.0 draft, which will be posted to the SE DSIG site pending appropriate approvals. It is clear that the DoDAF will continue to evolve, and much additional work is needed to determine how to best represent the DoDAF architecture views in UML.

Follow-on SE DSIG Roadmap

The phase 1 roadmap for the SE DSIG focused on the requirements analysis for UML for SE. This phase has been completed with the issuance of the UML for SE RFP. Clearly, a major focus for the phase 2 roadmap will be the evaluation and support of the responses to the RFP. In addition, we agreed the SE DSIG should focus its efforts over the next year on helping to bridge UML for SE with the other disciplines and related activities. Our discussion resulted in identification of the following activities, and an SE DSIG focal point to pursue each activity.

  • Evaluation of UML for SE RFP responses – (SE DSIG Support to ADTF)
  • Integration with SW Modeling and MDA – Sheena Judson (LMC)
  • Integration with Electrical (System C, VHDL, ..) – TBD
  • Integration with Mechanical – TBD
  • Integration with Specialty Engineering – Brian Willard (Northrop Grumman)
  • Integration with Quality of Service – Alan Moore (Artisan)
  • Integration with Testing - Doug Makofka (Motorola)
  • Integration with Model Driven Computing – Roger Burkhart (John Deere)
  • Integration with Modeling and Simulation (Distributed Simulation) – JD Baker (BAE Systems)
  • Integration with Workflow, Process Modeling and Business Rules – Vincent Arnould (Thales)
  • Integration with DoDAF – Loring Berhnardt (Mitre)
  • Integration with other Domains (C4I, SW Radio, etc.) – Dwayne Hardy (OSD/Open Group)

Each focal point agreed to provide a one paragraph description outlining the scope, deliverable and schedule for this effort. The deliverable may include white papers, briefings to the SE DSIG, liaison reports, and joint deliverables with the related efforts.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held in Paris the Week of June 2, 2003. Vincent Arnould from Thales has agreed to host an informational session on the SE DSIG on Wednesday, June 4 from 2:00 – 5:00, to provide general exposure to the SE DSIG effort. No additional SE DSIG activities are planned for the Paris meeting at this time.

Meeting Actions

The following are the action items from the Orlando meeting

  • Get approval to post Alan Moore’s interpretation of the UML representation of DoDAF views as defined in the Draft DoDAF V1.0 –D. Hardy/A. Moore (Due April 11, 2003)
  • Provide a 1paragraph summary of the scope, deliverables, and proposed schedule for each activity identified in the follow-on SE DSIG roadmap. – Focal Points per above (Due April 18, 2003)
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