The advantages of using Model Based Design with Polarion ALM

In this blog post, we discuss the advantages of using model-based design (MBD) with Polarion Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and the various supported modeling solutions available.

In the world of complex systems development, especially in industries such as automotive, aerospace, and industrial automation, the need for robust integration from model-based design to Polarion ALM is more critical than ever.  When used together, this combination offers a powerful synergy that enhances the efficiency, quality, and traceability of system development projects.

There are several reasons why you may choose to combine MBD tools with Polarion ALM:

Seamless Integration to support Comprehensive Lifecycle Management

By integrating Polarion with MBD, teams can achieve a seamless workflow that covers everything from initial requirements gathering to system design, implementation, testing, and validation.

Enhanced Traceability and Compliance

One of the significant challenges in system development is maintaining traceability across various stages of the project. Polarion ALM ensures that every requirement, design element, and test case is linked and traceable throughout the lifecycle. When integrated with a MBD tool, this traceability extends into the modeling and simulation phase, providing a complete audit trail. This is particularly beneficial for industries with stringent compliance requirements, such as ISO 26262 for automotive or DO-178C for aerospace, where traceability is crucial for certification.

Improved Collaboration Across Teams

Complex systems often involve collaboration between multiple teams, each with its domain expertise. Polarion ALM provides a centralized platform for collaboration, where team members can access up-to-date project information and communicate effectively. A MBD tool further complements this by allowing engineers to develop and test models collaboratively. This integration ensures that all stakeholders, from systems engineers to software developers, can work together efficiently, reducing miscommunication and ensuring alignment on project goals.

Accelerated Development Cycles

The integration of Polarion ALM and MBD helps accelerate development cycles by enabling teams to identify and address issues early in the design phase. A MBD tool’s modeling and simulation capabilities allow engineers to validate and optimize designs before implementation, reducing the likelihood of costly errors later in the development process. Polarion ALM ensures that these design changes are systematically managed and documented, streamlining the entire development process.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Both Polarion ALM and MBD offer powerful analytics and reporting capabilities. Polarion provides insights into project performance, resource utilization, and potential bottlenecks, while MBD tools offers detailed simulation results and model analysis. Together, these insights enable data-driven decision-making, allowing teams to optimize their development processes and deliver high-quality products faster.

Choosing the right MBD tool with Polarion

Several years ago, we launched a project aimed at enhancing our support for MBD tools within Polarion. While we already supported several MBD tools at that time, feedback from our customers, the ongoing improvements in MBD tools, and a detailed analysis of how they wanted these tools to integrate with Polarion led us to embark on a multi-year initiative to overhaul our offerings.

Here’s a brief update on what we’ve been working on recently.

If you’ve been following our “What’s New in Polarion” blog, you might be aware that we recently added support for IBM Rhapsody (and the Siemens-branded equivalent product), a widely used SysML, and UML modeling tool that supports both systems engineering and software development activities.

Polarion and IBM Rhapsody integration

Through our extensive partner ecosystem, HCL introduced support for the Dassault Cameo / Catia Magic family of products and Polarion last year.

Polarion and Dassault Cameo / Catia Magic integration

Additionally, last year, Siemens partner LieberLieber introduced a new integration between Sparx Enterprise Architect and Polarion.

You might be wondering: what do all these integrations have in common?

The answer is that they are all based on our popular Polarion integration to Mathworks Simulink direct integration, and therefore all support similar primary use cases. In fact, we used the Polarion integration to Simulink as our blueprint in development of these new MBD tool integrations.

Polarion and Mathworks Simulink integration

Common supported use cases across our Polarion MBD tool integrations:

• They enable traceability between model elements and Polarion work items (such as requirements), establishing comprehensive coverage. Most of these integrations offer an “embedded Polarion experience” directly within the modeling tool, making it easy to work seamlessly between Polarion and your preferred modeling tool. You can quickly navigate between the two tools without ever losing focus.
• Many customers choose to use Polarion powerful task management, defect management and collaboration capabilities to better overall manage the development of their models.
• You can choose how you wish to establish traceability. Some customers prefer to import Polarion work items directly into the modeling tool, while others opt to create direct links without the need to import them.
• Once traceability is established, you can decide how you want this information to be represented within Polarion. Several options are available, including the ability to display the modeling tool’s graphical diagrams within Polarion.

By offering extensive configuration, customization, and flexible mappings between Polarion and MBD tools, we provide you with the flexibility you need to use MBD tools with Polarion effectively.

Additionally, by having commonality across all our Polarion MBD tool integrations, this results in a win-win for you, as it streamlines your process, reduces complex learning and simplifies the integration approach overall.

Summary

The integration of Polarion ALM with Model-Based Design (MBD) tools offers a powerful, unified solution for managing complex system development projects. By combining the strengths of both platforms, organizations can achieve enhanced traceability, improved collaboration, and faster development cycles. This synergy is particularly valuable for industries that require high-quality, compliant, and efficient development processes. As system complexity continues to increase, the integration of Polarion ALM and MBD provides a compelling solution to address the challenges of modern engineering projects.

Polarion seamlessly integrates with many of the leading MBD tools available today, supporting key activities such as system design and analysis, algorithm development, closed-loop analysis, software architecture, and automatic code generation.

We understand that our customers have preferences when it comes to MBD tools, which is why Polarion offers broad support for a wide range of popular solutions.

Visit our Polarion Extensions Portal to learn more about the MBD tools we support, along with those offered by our extensive partner ecosystem.

Happy modeling with Polarion! 😊

Adrian

Polarion Product Management