Process for Selecting Engineering Tools – Applied to Selecting a SysML Tool

Project Objectives:

1. Choose a SysML tool for SNL
2. Centralize and manage existing and future tool licenses and installation packages in department 2998 for all users
3. Use industry best practices in Model-Based Systems Engineering to improve how to develop and communicate system specifications. For designs of sufficient complexity, users need to go beyond PowerPoint and Visio for functional analysis and allocation, interface definition, use case definition and requirement definition.
4. Reduce licensing costs by allowing users to share licenses
5. Make tools available at the engineer’s desktop on the SRN and SCN
6. Educate SNL engineers on the Systems Modeling Language and its potential benefits and costs
7. Investigate systems engineering problems and processes that benefit from the use of SysML
8. Develop a process for creating system specifications with a SysML tool
9. Document commercial tool functionalities with AP233
10. Document adherence of the commercial tools to the latest SysML tool standards
11. Down select to a SysML tool for technical projects at SNL (both New Mexico and California sites)
12. Make the SysML tool available on the SCN with appropriate access controls and security plans
13. Reduce the cost of stand-alone licensing and establish floating licenses for cost sharing on both the SRN and SCN
14. Establish a collaborative website for the SysML team and SysML tool licensing and installation information for users
15. Document our SysML tool selection process and results in a SAND report
16. Investigate the integration of SysML models with the Sandia application, “Orchestra.” Orchestra was written at Sandia New Mexico and is an embedded electronics design tool that can output XML files. The Orchestra users are working with SysML users to investigate how SysML might handoff to Orchestra.