Lightweight Requirements Modeling as an alternative to full-scale MBSE

Abstract:
From self-driving cars to e-scooters, new and established players are scrambling to enter the mobility market. Time is of the essence, but safety is a key requirement, because customers expect it and regulation requires it.

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) focuses on creating domain models as the primary means for managing and exploiting the system description, rather than documents. MBSE promises better management of complexity, reduced testing effort, and improved management of change by taking advantage of the formal relationships between the model elements. But this comes at the price of large overhead and the exclusion of a many stakeholders who are unable or unwilling to understand and interpret the models.

But between documents and formal system models, there is a third option: lightweight requirements modeling. Rather than using a modeling language like SysML, we instead work with entities and relationships. This approach has been used quite successfully for the last 20 years. But a new generation of tools leverages the requirements models even more effectively for crucial activities, like collaboration, change management, progress tracking, coverage, risk management trade-offs, and consistency checks.

Crucially, requirements modeling provides three capabilities necessary for new mobility: First, properly used, it supports compliance with IEC 61508 in general, and ISO 26262 in particular. These are two standards for functional safety development, which are often required in new mobility. Second, requirements modeling supports continuous engineering, which is crucial for agility and responsiveness to change, without sacrificing quality and compliance. Third, if done right, requirements models are useful for and accepted by all stakeholders — including management, marketing, engineering, and quality assurance.

Requirements modeling and MBSE are not mutually exclusive: If some stakeholders need the formality of systems modeling, integration allows alignment and cross-model traceability.

In this talk, we’ll illustrate these concepts by pulling examples from customers of Jama Software, from industries like autonomous driving, e-bikes, automotive semiconductors, and more.

Speaker: Michael Jastram, Jama Software

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