Requirements for a System Model in the Context of Digital Engineering

Abstract

The vision of achieving digital engineering in the US Department of Defense has instigated work on defining the information content and structure of the system model. However, few seem to have asked what are the requirements for the system model? In this paper, we use a requirements process to elicit and define the requirements for the system model. The system model is a digital artifact containing descriptions of all the essential objects, their properties, and the relationships between them for the system-of-interest (SoI). The paper describes the context of the system model in relationships to the other components of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) consisting of a modeling language, schema, model-based process, presentation framework, MBSE tools, and knowledgeable workforce. The paper describes how these components interact to provide effective MBSE. Requirements are stated for each component. The paper additionally derives information requirements for the system model according to the systems engineering process’s information needs by examining the inputs and outputs of each activity in the systems engineering process. Lastly, the paper derives the quality characteristics for the system model from the literature on ontologies, modeling languages, and semiotics. The result is a set of requirements for the system model to support MBSE and the digital thread.