More Perspectives on the Shift-Left and the Comprehensive Digital Twin with Mike Crist and Scot Morrison – Part 3 – Transcript
The Industry Forward Podcast continued with another three part series on the intricacies of shifting-left with the comprehensive Digital Twin.
Dale and I will be talking with Mike Crist, Industry Strategist for Aerospace, Defense, and Transportation at Siemens Digital Industries Software, and, returning, Scot Morrison, Vice President of Shift-Left Software Product Management in the Hardware Assisted Verification Group at Siemens EDA. With Scot returning, the next three episodes are something of a companion to our previous conversation with Doug Burcicki and Scot. We will be getting a new perspective from Mike on some of the same topics as in that previous discussion, and covering some new topics around shifting left with the comprehensive Digital Twin.
In this final part of the discussion, we’ll talk about how organizations are expanding AI to turn institutional experience into active assistance for developers, engineers, and other users. We will also discuss why companies are rethinking legacy business models in the face of complexity and rapid change, and how a hybrid approach to shift-left testing paired with cross, disciplined collaboration can accelerate validation and drive customer-focused transformations.
Conor Peick
Hello and welcome in to the Industry Forward Podcast with Dale Tutt. My name is Conor Peick and I am a writer for Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Thought Leadership team and your host for today’s podcast.
Dale Tutt
And I’m Dale Tutt, Vice President of the Industry Strategy Team at Siemens Digital Industries Software.
Conor Peick
So it’s a new season of the Industry Forward Podcast. In this new series, we are going to be exploring the idea of shifting left with comprehensive digital twin and doing so with the help of several experts with decades of combined experience in automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, software and more.
Today, Dale and I will be talking with Mike Crist, Industry Strategist for Aerospace, Defense, and Transportation at Siemens Digital Industries Software, and, returning, Scot Morrison, Vice President of Shift-Left Software Product Management in the Hardware Assisted Verification Group at Siemens EDA. We are doing something of a companion episode to our last conversation with Doug and Scot, now getting a new perspective from Mike on some of the same topics, and some new topics around shifting left with the comprehensive Digital Twin. We will revisit the major trends of the software-defined product revolution and how shifting-left can help. Then we will look at the power of systems engineering, a specific look at SysML V2, changing product requirements, and the benefits of virtual testing in the face of growing product complexity. Thanks again for joining us and please enjoy!
Dale Tutt
What about you, Scot? I’ll give you a quick—what are your thoughts on how artificial intelligence is helping with software development and hardware development?
Scot Morrison
Yeah, I mean specifically around software development. Obviously, people have been adopting productivity enhancement capabilities through AI, right? Initially, a lot of it started with analysis—static analysis and in some cases even dynamic analysis during execution of software. These are productivity enhancements. It allows people to develop more effectively or at least test more effectively. We’re seeing it transition into development. Authoring has IP concerns, but people are building up knowledge bases internally to leverage, especially in large companies, the vast amount of experience they have and the vast amount of software for different applications and workloads. They have enough information to generate a database and develop inferencing and assist capability to improve the efficiency of their developers. So authoring, testing, integration—we’re seeing it in all aspects of software development.
Mike Crist
You mentioned the changing business model—I want to share an anecdote with you.
Dale Tutt
Awesome, yeah.
Mike Crist
My brother was a software developer working for a freight management company. They were unhappy with their five or six or seven systems of record—systems to manage what was in the warehouse or in the truck, or to schedule drivers. They had all these crazy requirements for just moving freight from one side of the country to the other. So they built a software team, put them together, and tasked them with replacing all these systems. My brother, one of the lead architects, developed a platform where the different aspects of freight management would participate in a more brokered fashion. He approached management and said, “Hey, we’ve built this fantastic piece of software to satisfy your custom use cases, but your use cases aren’t unique in the industry. Why don’t we sell this software?” They could have become a software company and made much more money selling software than moving freight. Management couldn’t handle that shift. They couldn’t see the value in changing the business model. That struggle companies have isn’t unique to aerospace, defense, or auto.
Dale Tutt
That’s a really good point—I thought you were going to end with, “My brother now manages a $5 billion software company.”
Mike Crist
No, they let him go because they couldn’t figure out how to sell the software.
Dale Tutt
I want to touch back on something Scot talked about earlier—in the previous session, he discussed testing, verification, and validation processes. Mike, I’d like your perspective, and Scot, feel free to weigh in. Does “shift left” imply greater reliance on virtual testing and methods? There’s heavy reliance on physical testing nowadays for certification. How are companies responding to using more virtual methods? It’s part of the paradigm and culture shift companies are going through.
Mike Crist
I’ve got a different story. We were in a meeting trying to apply Agile software development to hardware development. One mechanical engineer said, “Software delivers features every two weeks. What do you expect us to do—cut metal? That’s not going to happen.” And another engineer, an optimist, said, “We design systems the size of buildings. Cutting metal and 3D printing every two weeks isn’t feasible.” So we went to Walmart, bought duct tape, grabbed cardboard from the dumpster, and made a mock-up in the break room. That let us answer design questions we couldn’t easily address in CAD. So I don’t think the answer has to be virtual. The key is using models to answer design questions. Whether it’s a virtual model or cardboard in the break room—the model should match the question you’re trying to answer.
Dale Tutt
Mike, you’re going for my title of “most stories ever!” Not sure I want to dive into dumpsters, though.
Scot Morrison
Since we’re in storytelling mode—here’s one. I was with a top-five OEM recently. We talked about their development process and how they wanted to move toward a digital twin. This was for a couple of subsystems. They pointed to a hardware rig used for validation and said, “We want to replace that with a virtual equivalent.” It was tangible, expensive to build, deploy, and maintain. It made it easy to propose virtual replacements—for the majority of development at least. Mike’s right—it’s not always about virtual platforms. Sometimes a hybrid approach works. Safety systems may still require full hardware testing. There’s a continuum in development. It’s important to understand customer use cases and build solutions that support their entire development flow—not just isolated components.
Dale Tutt
Yeah, it’s about using the right tool at the right time—and that’s all part of your process. We talk a lot about people, tools, and processes. You can’t just adopt technology without thinking about the other two. Mike, you reminded me of when we sold one of our ideas. We convinced a general we had done a CAD mock-up—Cardboard Aided Design! That’s how we verified it. Back in the early days—that was a long time ago.
Mike Crist
Right.
Conor Peick
That’s awesome—thank you, guys! I really love the personal stories. It’s a great way to illustrate the importance of being thoughtful with technology. I think that’s the core message today. As we wrap up, do you have any final thoughts for the listeners?
Mike Crist
Yes—I’d say now is a good time to challenge assumptions. There’s a lot of change, a lot of new players entering markets. Disruptors take niche applications or approaches and turn them mainstream. They break away from long-held beliefs about how things “should” be, respond quickly to change, and become successful. We may need to let go of some of those long-held beliefs.
Scot Morrison
Similar to Mike’s point, customers know they need to change—and many have ideas about what that looks like. But it’s a journey. You can’t drop in a new development flow without understanding where they are and what their goals are. Our job is to be part of that journey—identify high-value, easy-to-adopt steps and guide them, especially with so much disruption from AI, custom SoCs, and software-defined products. Our experience helps lead them to meaningful improvements as they move toward their goal. It’s not easy—but customers are open to the journey, and we help deliver real results along the way.
Dale Tutt
As we wrap up, I’m thinking about all the conversations in this series—complexity, software development, hardware, electrical systems. It really emphasizes how critical a comprehensive digital twin is—connecting across domains so you can understand your system, perform virtual verification, and even use cardboard mock-ups if needed. We also talked about collaboration—this is an ecosystem, and bringing everything together with our customers is vital. Thanks again—this has been a fantastic series with Mike Ellow, Doug Burcicki, Scot Morrison, and Mike Crist. Huge thanks to all of them. Great session—and we’ll talk to you all soon.
Mike Crist
Thank you.
Scot Morrison
Thanks, Dale.
Conor Peick
Hi there this is your host Conor one more time just to say thank you so much for listening to the Industry Forward Podcast with Dale Tutt. If you enjoyed the show, please consider subscribing on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and if you really enjoyed the show, maybe throwing us a rating and a review.
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Accelerating transformation.
