Real MBSE: Synthesizing Solutions for Mission Success Webinar

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Moving from defined requirements and desired functionality to a deployable, mission-ready solution is the essence of synthesis. This process, as outlined in the principles of Dr. Steven Dam's Real MBSE, is about more than just putting components together; it’s about intelligently leveraging existing resources, managing risk, and maintaining a laser focus on mission performance, all while keeping cost and schedule in check.

Here’s a look at the critical aspects of synthesizing effective solutions for mission success, drawing insights from our webinar and Chapter 6 of Real MBSE.

Leveraging the Existing World: COTS and GOTS

The romantic idea of starting every system design with a blank sheet of paper is often just that: an idea. In reality, over 95% of projects involve working within the existing architecture, leveraging prior investments, and making improvements.

The strategic use of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) and Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS) systems is paramount. These existing components help you:

• Define and Bound the Work: COTS can quickly establish the feasible scope and performance limits of your solution.
• Reduce Timeline and Cost: By using existing, proven technologies, you avoid the heavy lifting (and sunk cost) of new development.
• Focus on Integration: The goal shifts from creating new products to using existing systems differently or integrating them effectively, similar to the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) of the 1990s.

However, caution is needed. While these systems offer huge benefits, they can also become "boat anchors" if they overly constrain necessary innovation. Proper trade-off analysis is essential to determine if an existing component is truly meeting the need or if a new approach is required.

The Power of Open and Modular Design (MOSA)

Modern solutions must be flexible and adaptable. This necessity brings us to the importance of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA).

Making a system open and modular ensures that components can work together easily and, more importantly, are replaceable. This approach to architectural design is critical for ensuring the longevity of a system, particularly in long-lifecycle environments like the Department of Defense (DoD) or NASA.

When synthesizing a solution, engineers must look at integration strategies:

• Federated Systems: Loosely coupled, independent systems that interoperate minimally.
• Integrated Systems: More tightly coupled and connected components.
• New Development: Sometimes, as demonstrated by the creation of tools like InnoSlate, integrating disparate existing functionality is too painful. A new, integrated development is the right answer, provided the cost and capability payoff is worth the investment.

The Trifecta: Performance, Cost, and Schedule

While a strong technical solution is non-negotiable, it must be balanced against the constraints of cost and schedule. These three factors form the critical metrics of any successful system synthesis.

Performance Allocation is Complex: The performance of the overall system is not a simple mathematical decomposition of its subsystems’ performance. The relationship between a low-level component metric (e.g., number of tackles in a football analogy) and the high-level system metric (wins and losses) is complex. Systems engineers must model and simulate the impact of improving subsystem performance on overall system performance to determine its true value.

Cost is an Engineering Problem: Cost estimation is not solely the program manager's job; it is a critical engineering judgment that requires experience and a deep understanding of the system's architecture and material/labor requirements. Systems engineers are responsible for determining the system cost. Incorporating cost modeling into simulation tools from the beginning allows for comprehensive trade-off analyses.

Synthesizing Solutions from the Bottom Up

When tasked with replacing a legacy system, engineers often find themselves in a "bottom-up world." Documentation for older systems is frequently outdated or incomplete.

The synthesis process in this scenario involves:

1. Physical Model: Developing a model of the existing physical components.
2. Functional Abstraction: Abstracting those components into a functional model to understand how the system is currently being used.
3. Requirements Generation: Abstracting the functional model into clear, traceable requirements.

This approach ensures strong traceability from the legacy system's functions to the new requirements. It provides a powerful foundation for evaluating any proposed solution from potential vendors.

Thinking Beyond the Boundaries

A key part of the synthesis process is recognizing that the system boundary you drew yesterday might not be the optimal boundary for tomorrow’s solution.

When researching existing and planned systems, systems engineers should look beyond the current system boundary. If new technologies allow for greater capability, functionality that was previously performed by an external, interacting system might now be brought into the core architecture. This "replacement by bringing technology together" can dramatically improve overall performance and simplify operations.

By focusing on COTS/GOTS leverage, MOSA design, disciplined performance and cost analysis, and holistic architectural thinking, Real MBSE provides the necessary framework to synthesize robust solutions that truly achieve mission success.