{"id":4749,"date":"2024-04-06T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/?p=4749"},"modified":"2026-03-26T09:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:01:41","slug":"scaled-agile-with-integrated-system-modeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/scaled-agile-with-integrated-system-modeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaled-Agile with Integrated System Modeling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scaled Agile is about scaling agile product development.  So how does Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and its System Modeling process enable Scaled Agile so you can start integrated and stay integrated through-out the entire product lifecycle (software and hardware)? A recent webinar by Stefan Bonnet at Thales<\/a> related their experiences with both which inspired me to look deeper into how Siemens Systems Engineering solutions can enable your Agile Workflow using System Modeling Workbench solution<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

System Modeling Workbench leverages Capella as its powerful\nmodeling engine. Capella includes a  tooled methodology ARCADIA (Arc<\/strong>hitecture A<\/strong>nalysis & D<\/strong>esign I<\/strong>ntegrated A<\/strong>pproach) to guide the product architecture development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The ARCADIA methodology covers both the Problem and the Solution spaces through four viewpoints. Operational Analysis (OA), Systems Analysis (SA), Logical Architecture (LA), and Physical Architecture (PA). The Systems Analysis viewpoint is where the System Engineer\/Architect identifies what the system needs to accomplish for the customer. The results of System Analysis directly maps to the first principle in Agile development<\/a>: \u201cOur highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of value.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you not entertained?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve been locked down recently and are catching up with your favorite TV series.  So let\u2019s use planning an on-demand video service as an example– Amazon Prime, Youtube, Netflix, or similar…Where do you start your System Analysis? First, let\u2019s create a Mission Capabilities Blank (MCB) diagram for our System Analysis and dive in from there…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Netflix CEO Reed Hastings<\/a> recently said \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re in the entertainment business\u201d.  So we create our Mission, \u201cCommercialize entertaining of people with video\u201d, but what capabilities would our on-demand service have to entertain people?  The most basic one is \u201cWatch a Movie\u201d and others like \u201cChoose Movie from Library\u201d and more.  If we consider the business stakeholder’s perspective, we\u2019d want to \u201cTrack Movie Watching\u201d and we keep going defining the circumstances our on-demand service would be used.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But who will use our on-demand service\u2019s capabilities? Bring\non the actors! Let\u2019s create a Contextual System Actors (CSA) diagram:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Remember our mission is to entertain people, so let’s create a Customer actor for our Capabilities. We don\u2019t want to forget the On-Demand Business actor either, after all \u2013 they are someone who benefits from the commercialization of our service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moving back to the Mission Capabilities diagram we created\npreviously, let\u2019s identify who is involved with which capability. All people\nenjoy watching a movie on-demand, but only our business person appreciates\ntrends, so we will \u201cinvolve\u201d them accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So why all this work with Actors and Capabilities?  In Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) A Capability is a higher-level solution behavior that typically spans multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs). What we\u2019ve done so far in System Modeling Workbench is specify, through modeling, capabilities that provide value to some stakeholders that are to be planned for in an Agile product roadmap!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on from our System Analysis, we want to articulate interaction between a person and our on-demand service. What will our System do for its stakeholders? The basic system functions could be: Stream movie, Track watched movies, Provide movie choices,\u2026  So let\u2019s model these with the System Architecture Blank (SAB) diagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026then articulate in the SAB what the Person does to watch\nthe movie, what the system does to help,  and the interactions between the Person and\nthe System as Functional exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you ask me, \u201cWhat does the system do to enable the Watch\nMovie capability?\u201d I would create a Functional Chain containing the Functions\nand exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026 and then relate to the capability it describes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Woohlah! We now have a clear description of what the system must do in its interaction with the Person to watch a movie. But all this work and for what? SAFe goes further and explains that for a software team to develop a Capability, it must first be broken into a feature<\/a>. How do \u201cfeatures\u201d relate to System Modeling Workbench? The inspirational webinar<\/a> further explains that the Capability\u2019s Functional Chain and relevant Requirements from the model specify the Feature, an increment of value:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So there you have it, you\u2019ve modeled a high-level feature specification for which is then planned for development in a timebox called a Program Increment in Agile SAFe. Are you not entertained?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bam! Let\u2019s Kick it Up a Notch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What is not spoken to in this blog is how the solution, defined by Logical and Physical Architecture in System Modeling Workbench, realizes the System Analysis to identify the key components, behaviors, and interfaces that will be developed. The Functional Chain, modeled in System Analysis, is fully traceable to these sets of elements, in fact, providing the expected vertical slice of work to be designed, developed and tested for.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be thinking that\u2019s a lot of work for something so simple, of course, this goes well beyond software to the systems running the software and system interacting with the outside world.  Imagine scaling this to an airplane and air traffic control system or a refinery and a logistics system.  You must think this way if you expect that the software your developing will work with the system it was designed for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you interested in this topic? We have a bunch more, check out the rest of the MBSE blogs<\/a> we have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does the System Modeling process enable scaled agile so you can stay integrated throughout the entire product lifecycle (software and hardware)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53996,"featured_media":4865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,126],"tags":[16,71],"industry":[],"product":[357],"coauthors":[1268],"class_list":["post-4749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-learning-resources","tag-model-based-systems-engineering","tag-product-requirements-engineering","product-teamcenter"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2020\/04\/product-development.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53996"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4775,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions\/4775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/teamcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}