INCOSE NE Monthly Meeting in Waltham, MA

6:00-6:30 PM: Meet, Greet, and Mingle

Local Introductions at Local Sites

Eat Dinner

6:30-7:00 PM: INCOSE Overview and Chapter Business

7:00-7:45 PM: Invited Speakers: Paul Goossens and Bharani Mohan, "An Excel-based MBSE Tool for Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration across the Enterprise"

7:45-8:00 PM: Discussion and Wrap-Up

Abstract: As model-based methodologies, and the tools to support the Systems Engineering function, are becoming mandatory in engineering projects, team managers are challenged with encouraging all stakeholders to share information and decisions from their own activities through the systems model as the “single source of truth”. Traditionally, this would be achieved by either forcing all stakeholders to learn to use the same tools as the Systems Engineers, or transfer the information through documents, spreadsheets, emails etc, and frequent design-review meetings. Both approaches introduce significant risk to the project: stakeholders who are not experts in system engineering resist learning to use tools that are not core to their function, or information is transferred and interpreted in a laborious and error-prone manner. Either can lead to missing or erroneous data, causing problems later in the process that can be extremely costly and disruptive to the project. Maplesoft recently launched MapleMBSE to address these challenges by allowing all stakeholders to access, and contribute to, the system model through a familiar user interface in Excel. MapleMBSE provides a powerful technology that generates task-specific views into the system model, serving up the relevant information in tabular or matrix forms. Users can then directly edit and contribute to the systems model by adding further information – requirements, structures, behaviors, parametrics, etc. – through the Excel spreadsheet, for others to share, review, comment, and utilize. This presentation will illustrate this work-flow with a case study from a recent pilot project at JPL. It will highlight the advantages of allowing all stakeholders in the project to collaborate with others, directly through the systems model, served through Magic Draw Teamwork Cloud. In this way, the team was able to accelerate the systems engineering process by simplifying information-entry and reducing the risk of errors for all stakeholders, thus facilitating knowledge-sharing and design collaboration across the enterprise.

Speakers:

Paul Goossens is the Vice President of MBSE Solutions at Maplesoft. A mechanical engineering with over 20 years of experience in both engineering and software business management, his previous roles include senior management positions for companies in the fields of system-level modeling and simulation. He oversees the Systems Engineering Solutions Business Unit that provides tools and services to support customers’ Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) processes for product design and operation. At the core of his activities is Maplesoft's latest product, MapleMBSE, an Excel-based tool to help democratize the SE process and broaden SE engagement across the enterprise.

Bharani Mohan is an MBSE specialist, and facilitates the improvement of the overall user experience throughout the model-based system engineering process. He works with customers to enhance their use of Maplesoft’s MapleMBSE platform, providing guidance and assisting with issues. He also supports the development of specific MapleMBSE features to encourage broader adoption. With a background in Aerospace Engineering, Bharani has experience applying MBSE design methodologies in conceptual design of aircraft systems architecture, and translating design requirements into system architecture.