EA and SysML to do Systems Eng for Projects

[RG-SysEng-09]

Does anyone here have any experience of defining a System Schema in EA using SysML for populating System Design for a complex Project which is hardware and software centric, rather than just software based. Purpose is to be able to perform proper Systems Engineering design activities and then produce design documentation such as an SSDD. So we are talking about Systems Breakdown hierarchy, Funcitonal Decomposition, Interfaces, Sequence Diagrams and Activity Diagrams for Functional Analysis and other similar stuff.... Please help! We are using wenterprise Architect 7.1 and are encountering a lot of problems, what is the most correct way to do what we are trying to do?

[RG-SysEng-09]

Using Reference texts -
     a) Systems Engineering with SysML/UML :by Weilkins
     b) A Practical Guide to SysML :by Friedenthal, Moore, Steiner

None of these talk about what EA is capable of or how to do what in EA? It just talks about SysML notations which we found are not really implemented in EA 7.1 out of the box!! Are we on the right or wrong track? We fear its the latter but still would help us to hear from someone out there who has some experience in this area.

[«Midnight»]

There has been a separately priced SysML profile for EA for some time. You'll find it in the MDG Technologies section of the Sparx Products list.

Starting with EA 7.5 this becomes part of the Systems Engineering and Ultimate editions of EA.

[RG-SysEng-09]

Hi, yeah we already have the SysML add-in Extension. Still we need some more guidance and the issue is as stated, the Models are not supported as demonstrated in the texts we are using as mentioned earlier. Any more ideas or tips?

[Helmut Ortmann]

Hi,

may be I don't see the problem correctly.

In my experiences with complex environments I devided the models in e.g:
- Safety Model with SysML or UML
- System Model with e.g. SysML
- SW Model with UML

May be it's useful to make your own profile to extend e.g a SysML block to
- SW
- HW
- Mechanics
- ..

In this sample a SysML block is the receiver of a dependency from a UML class in another model. You may give the dependency a <<stereotype>> like <<realize>> to express the refinement of a SysML block by a SW, HW or mechanic component, class or whartever you like.

In small systems you may work with one model which is clustered by packages. This is a solution you can always choose.

Regards,

Helmut

[RG-SysEng-09]

My questions are based around- how far the SysML constructs, as documented by SysML reference Texts, are supported by EA ver 7.1 or for that matter the new proposed ver 7.5? Thats what we are really having problems with!! For example- When we use Actions in an activity diagram, that invokes a lower level activity (with defined parameters), for some reason we do not see any Embedded Elements for the related Action at the higher level? Why? We should have some sort of relation automated by EA to allow for the defined parameters of a low level activity to show up as embedded elements or as action pins on an action that is used at a higher level Activity diagram! But its not working for us. We do have a Data Model defined and the parameters are linked via "Instance classification" as the Data Model elements. Now, if there is a particular sequence to follow then please do get back to us with it as we may have missed something but things like these are not very well documented or stated out in any of the references we have on EA!

[RG-SysEng-09]

Well actually, tehre are NO REFERENCES on EA usage!!! And thats a pretty big DRAWBACK! Here we have Sparx generating Versions after versions, and Releases after Releases and yet there si NOTHING ON EA that talks us into using SysML in EA!!! How come this has been overlooked for so long! Its actually getting to a point that its becoming annoying for our team thats using EA. If anyone knows more on this....then please assist us!

[mdlng-coach]

Can you share an excerpt of the model to illustrate what you describe in your post? what is meant by 'lower level' and 'higher level' activity and diagram; what connector type you are using from action to activity.  With a pictorial description along with intended semantics, I might be able to help you with how to accomplish it with EA.

[RG-SysEng-09]

Well, i don't think i can provide much of an example here if you do not understand what i mean by a High Level Activity and a low level Activity. On a Functional Hierarchy, a High Level function is a function that gets decomposed to sub-functions that form the activity. Each sub-function is then considered to be a lower level activity on the Hierarchy. Hope you are with me so far. Now, when you define the Parameters of an activity and then that same activity gets invoked in a Higher Level Activity diagram through a corresponding action (this is how Activity diagrams are done once the Activities/Functions are defined using a BDD in EA!), the Parameters should show up as Action Pins for that Action if you were to expect some EA automation or intelligence in creating automatic relationships. Instead, there is no automatic linkage between an action and a corresponding activity which makes it hard to imagine how the whole SysML concept actually works in EA. It more or less feels like just another drawing tool instead of something that caters for the relationships between different objects. Hope this makes it any clearer!

[RG-SysEng-09]

....what is meant by 'lower level' and 'higher level' activity and diagram; what connector type you are using from action to activity.  ......

Ummmm there is no "CONNECTOR TYPE" between an Action and an Activity. An Action invokes an Activity! That is how you should be using Activities within an Activity Diagram!

[Melmar]

<<viewpoint>>
SysML 1.1 in Build 843 seems (to me) like it went backward.  There are no compartments on the blocks for parts!?!?!  I've tried adding every one of the properties into the IBD diagrams - nothing seems like it was in 7.1.

Realize this is a very early stage of the SysML development, but have the SysML specs changed THAT MUCH!  I have both OMG books - this version of SysML 1.1 seems to make those a smidge obsolete?!

Someone please tell me if the other methods of modelling are just looking better for systems engineering projects?  These EA Archimate diagrams look more interesting than SysML to me right now - except like the SysML stuff, I can't find any DOCUMENTATION!?!!!

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