Don’t Jump Off The Roof Dad!

I recently posted a link to a news article with the title “Spreadsheet error led to Edinburgh hospital opening delay”, which you can find here. There was a great response to this post so thanks to everyone who interacted with it. Flippantly I suggested the experience of this project was good evidence for adopting a Model-Based […]

Break! Break! Break!

I’ve just been participating in a virtual seminar with Dassault Systèmes hosted by the Crystal Interactive JAM Platform when the unthinkable happened. I had just delivered a whistle-stop presentation on the subject of “Identifying the right MBSE Strategy” (MBSE = Model-Based Systems Engineering) when something went wrong and I lost my connection! I quickly rebooted, […]

The MBSE Horizon: Advances and Challenges over the next few years

This article has been brought to you by Project Performance International as part of the PPI SyEN Newsletter. For the complete newsletter and past editions, please click here Abstract The most significant development on the MBSE horizon is the forthcoming submission of the SysML v2 proposal which diverges SysML from its origins as a Profile of UML. While this is a welcome and necessary development, […]

MBSE: More work for less return?

Recently in the INCOSE group here on LinkedIn Stephen Guine posted the following:  “Hey folks, after chatting with some of our fellow members at the recent Regional Mini Conference here in Los Angeles, I’ve come to the conclusion that many of us might benefit from a podcast focusing on “real world” MBSE stories. Topics might include “what was it like choosing […]

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Recently the old adage measure twice, cut once has been very relevant to a personal project, so I thought it would be worth while writing a few notes on what may to most of us appears the flippin’ obvious, but can still catch us all out every now and then. What could go wrong? Currently we’re having some building work done […]

More, More, More! Thoughts on Scope Creep

In my last article “Building Systems is Difficult” I discussed the “3 Evils” of Systems Engineering, namely: Complexity, A lack of understanding, and Poor Communication. There were lots of great comments on this, but one which stood out for me as something which required further discussion was this from James McHugh who added (as an additional evil and […]

Building Systems is Difficult

Building systems that meet the needs and expectations of all the stakeholders isn’t easy. In fact, to borrow a line from Chris Addison’s character Toby Wright from the film “In the loop” it’s “difficult, difficult, lemon difficult”[clip]. In their book “SysML for Systems Engineering 2nd Edition: A model-based approach” [ISBN 978-1-84919-651-2], Jon Holt & Simon Perry of Scarecrow Consultants build on the work of Grady […]