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Systems Engineering

Systems Engineering

Systems engineering (SE) is the controlled evolution of needs into products, and sometimes their use and disposal. SE encourages each project to use a rigorous process. A variety of SE processes exist, some based on a highly iterative (or agile) approach, and others are sequential, phase-based.

Each process requires a variety of documents to describe the evolution of user stories, requirements or needs into the final products

  • User Requirements Document (URD)
  • System Requirements Document (SRD)
  • Performance Verification Matrix (PVM)
  • Systems and Subsystem Design Document (SDD and SSDS)
  • Interface Definition Documents (IDDs)

Fundamental to a process and to these documents is a decision; to model or not to model.

Models are representations of a part of the system from a perspective that seek to allow that aspect of reality to be described succinctly and precisely. All systems exhibit the same three dimensions of behaviour, data and control. Many modelling notations exist (including ADARTS, UML, SysML, SASD, BPMN, IDEF, FFBD and others), each focused on these dimensions to different extents, each notation with its own background and intended use. There is no single correct, or best, modelling notation.

Models are not essential to SE, but are often a powerful means to describe relationships between the elements of the system. Processes that use models are said to follow a model based systems engineering (MBSE) approach.

The Benefits

With Cradle's unique ability to support the entire systems process in one tool and one database, you can ensure that your user stories and requirements are linked to analysis, architecture and design models to which you can link all of your V&V data. Whether you use models, or not, you can ensure that your systems will be successfully specified, designed, implemented, tested and commissioned. By providing a fully traced, tracked and configuration managed environment, Cradle ensures that your project will respond accurately and efficiently to any number of changes in both agile and phase-based processes.

The benefits of Cradle for systems engineering are:

  • You are able to manage all your data, no matter how large or small, no matter how static or dynamic, of any format and content, in every agile or phase based process
  • You and your team can work efficiently, collaboratively, even across multiple locations
  • You can be alerted to, and track, every action and every change
  • You have full traceability across the entire lifecycle, including unique transitive view
  • You can apply the appropriate level of configuration management and change controls and produce change logs, audit trails
  • You can guarantee the quality and completeness of your information, your documentation, your traceability and your historical records

The Cradle Solution

Multiple Models and Domains

Each Cradle database contains two domains:

  • Essential, intended for implementation-independent analysis, logical and process models
  • Implementation, intended for architecture and design models

Each domain can contain any number of models. Each model contains any number of diagrams and descriptions of diagram symbols (data definitions and specifications). You can choose the notations available in each model. Models can be linked to each other and to all other information, including user stories, requirements, SBS, test cases and risks

Multiple Models and Domains
Flexible Interface

Flexible Interface

Cradle provides web-based and non-web UIs to enter, view, manipulate and analyse information including models. All parts of these UIs are user-defined. All information can be shown in lists, trees, tables and documents in any desired layout

Flexible Interface

Cradle provides web-based and non-web UIs to enter, view, manipulate and analyse information including models. All parts of these UIs are user-defined. All information can be shown in lists, trees, tables and documents in any desired layout

Flexible Interface

Integrated Information

Models are completely integrated with all other types of information. Navigating in to, and out from, models, is as seamless as navigating within and between all other types of information

Integrated Information
Cradle Discussions

Cradle Discussions

  • Allow users to collaborate, even when in multiple locations, using automatic alerts, comments and discussions

Cradle Discussions

  • Allow users to collaborate, even when in multiple locations, using automatic alerts, comments and discussions
Cradle Discussions

Models and Model Reuse

  • Build any number of models for system-of-systems, multiple product ranges or variants
  • Share and re-use models at user-defined levels
Models and Model Reuse
Cradle Consistency Checks

Cradle Consistency Checks

  • Over 20 diagram notations, from methodologies such as: SASD, IDEF, FFBD, UML, ADARTS, SysML
  • Support for logical and physical architecture modelling
  • Syntax-checking editors
  • Comprehensive consistency checks within and between models

Cradle Consistency Checks

  • Over 20 diagram notations, from methodologies such as: SASD, IDEF, FFBD, UML, ADARTS, SysML
  • Support for logical and physical architecture modelling
  • Syntax-checking editors
  • Comprehensive consistency checks within and between models
Cradle Consistency Checks

Linking Information

Cradle provides everything needed for SE and MBSE with a unique range of features, including:

  • Allow any number of items of any number of user-defined information types
  • Allow each item to contain any number of attributes, each attribute storing or linking to up to 1 TByte of any type of data
  • Allow items to be linked 1:1, 1:many, many:many with no restrictions
  • Provide indirect, transitive, linking across the entire lifecycle, see 'anywhere to anywhere' relationships where Cradle transparently follows chains of multiple links for you
Linking Information
Hierarchy Diagrams

Hierarchy Diagrams

  • Graphically show traceability with automatically-generated, interactive, Hierarchy Diagrams with user-defined layouts and levels of detail
  • Formally review items through user-defined workflows
  • Option to manage all information in project baselines
  • Option to manage changes to baselined information with Change Requests and Change Tasks
  • Full audit trails and logs of all project activities to any level that you choose
  • Maintain multiple projects' information and reusable libraries in one database
  • Publish all project documentation, including models, from user-defined templates
  • Track the contents of all issues of all formal project documentation, relating items to documents

Hierarchy Diagrams

  • Graphically show traceability with automatically-generated, interactive, Hierarchy Diagrams with user-defined layouts and levels of detail
  • Formally review items through user-defined workflows
  • Option to manage all information in project baselines
  • Option to manage changes to baselined information with Change Requests and Change Tasks
  • Full audit trails and logs of all project activities to any level that you choose
  • Maintain multiple projects' information and reusable libraries in one database
  • Publish all project documentation, including models, from user-defined templates
  • Track the contents of all issues of all formal project documentation, relating items to documents
Hierarchy Diagrams

Cradle Can Also ...

Collectively, these provide the most powerful, flexible and extensible systems engineering solution available. But since Cradle can integrate your entire process in one tool, you are not limited to managing requirements in isolation. You can also:

  • Link functional requirements to behavioural descriptions in models
  • Link non-functional requirements to system descriptions, either architecture models, SBS, PBS or sets of functions and components
  • Allocate functional elements into the architecture
  • Manage all levels of validation and verification, including test specifications, test cases, test results and acceptance criteria
  • Perform traceability and coverage analyses from every part of each source and reference document, through the products of requirements engineering into architecture and design models and from there into test management and acceptance testing