![Sysml diagrams collage](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Sysml_diagrams_collage.jpg)
The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is a
general-purpose modeling
General-purpose modeling (GPM) is the systematic use of a general-purpose modeling language to represent the various facets of an object or a system. Examples of GPM languages are:
* The Unified Modeling Language (UML), an industry standard for ...
language for
systems engineering applications. It supports the specification,
analysis
Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...
,
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
,
verification and validation
Verification and validation (also abbreviated as V&V) are independent procedures that are used together for checking that a product, service, or system meets requirements and specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. These are ...
of a broad range of systems and
systems-of-systems.
SysML was originally developed by an
open source specification project, and includes an open source license for distribution and use.
SysML is defined as an extension of a subset of the
Unified Modeling Language
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
The creation of UML was originally m ...
(UML) using
UML's profile mechanism. The language's extensions were designed to support systems engineering activities.
Contrast with UML
SysML offers several systems engineering specific improvements over UML, which has been developed as a software modeling language. These improvements include the following:
* SysML's diagrams express system engineering concepts better due to the removal UML's software-centric restrictions and adds two new diagram types, requirement and parametric diagrams. The former can be used for
requirements engineering
Requirements engineering (RE) is the process of defining, documenting, and maintaining requirements in the engineering design process. It is a common role in systems engineering and software engineering.
The first use of the term ''requiremen ...
; the latter can be used for
performance analysis and
quantitative analysis. Consequent to these enhancements, SysML is able to model a wide range of systems, which may include hardware, software, information, processes, personnel, and facilities.
* SysML is a comparatively small language that is easier to learn and apply. Since SysML removes many of UML's software-centric constructs, the overall language is smaller both in diagram types and total constructs.
* SysML allocation tables support common kinds of allocations. Whereas UML provides only limited support for tabular notations, SysML furnishes flexible allocation tables that support requirements allocation, functional allocation, and structural allocation. This capability facilitates automated
verification and validation
Verification and validation (also abbreviated as V&V) are independent procedures that are used together for checking that a product, service, or system meets requirements and specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. These are ...
(V&V) and gap analysis.
* SysML model management constructs support models, views, and viewpoints. These constructs extend UML's capabilities and are architecturally aligned with
IEEE-Std-1471-2000 (IEEE Recommended Practice for Architectural Description of Software Intensive Systems).
SysML reuses seven of UML 2's fourteen diagrams, and adds two diagrams (requirement and parametric diagrams) for a total of nine diagram types. SysML also supports allocation tables, a tabular format that can be dynamically derived from SysML allocation relationships. A table which compares SysML and UML 2 diagrams is available in the SysML FAQ.
Consider modeling an automotive system: with SysML one can use Requirement diagrams to efficiently capture functional, performance, and interface requirements, whereas with UML one is subject to the limitations of
use case diagram
A use case diagram is a graphical depiction of a user's possible interactions with a system. A use case diagram shows various use cases and different types of users the system has and will often be accompanied by other types of diagrams as well. Th ...
s to define high-level functional requirements. Likewise, with SysML one can use Parametric diagrams to precisely define performance and quantitative constraints like maximum
acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...
, minimum
curb weight
Vehicle weight is a measurement of wheeled motor vehicles; either an actual measured weight of the vehicle under defined conditions or a gross weight rating for its weight carrying capacity.
Curb or kerb weight
Curb weight (U.S. English) or kerb ...
, and total
air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
capacity. UML provides no straightforward mechanism to capture this sort of essential performance and quantitative information.
Concerning the rest of the automotive system, enhanced
activity diagram
Activity diagrams are graphical representations of workflows of stepwise activities and actions with support for choice, iteration and concurrency. In the Unified Modeling Language, activity diagrams are intended to model both computational and o ...
s and
state machine diagrams can be used to specify the
embedded software
Embedded software is computer software, written to control machines or devices that are not typically thought of as computers, commonly known as embedded systems. It is typically specialized for the particular hardware that it runs on and has tim ...
control logic and information flows for the on-board automotive computers. Other SysML structural and behavioral diagrams can be used to model factories that build the automobiles, as well as the interfaces between the organizations that work in the factories.
History
The SysML initiative originated in a January 2001 decision by the
International Council on Systems Engineering
The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE; pronounced in-co-see) is a not-for-profit membership organization and professional society in the field of systems engineering. INCOSE has about 17000 members including individual members, ...
(INCOSE) Model Driven Systems Design workgroup to customize the UML for systems engineering applications. Following this decision, INCOSE and the
Object Management Group
The Object Management Group (OMG) is a computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a range of technologies.
Business activities
The goal of the OMG was a common portable and interoperab ...
(OMG), which maintains the UML specification, jointly chartered the OMG Systems Engineering Domain Special Interest Group (SE DSIG) in July 2001. The SE DSIG, with support from INCOSE and the
ISO AP 233 workgroup, developed the requirements for the modeling language, which were subsequently issued by the OMG parting in the ''UML for Systems Engineering Request for Proposal'' (UML for SE RFP; OMG document ad/03-03-41) in March 2003.
In 2003
Cris Kobryn
Cris Kobryn (1952) is an American technologist, system architect and entrepreneur who specializes in advanced software and systems development.
Biography
Kobryn began his software engineering career in the early 1980s specializing in AI progra ...
and Sanford Friedenthal organized and co-chaired the
SysML Partners
SysML Partners is a consortium of software tool vendors and industry leaders organized in 2003 to create the Systems Modeling Language (SysML), a dialect of UML customized for systems engineering. The consortium was founded and organized by Cris Ko ...
, an informal association of industry leaders and tool vendors, which initiated an open source specification project to develop the SysML in response to the UML for Systems Engineering RFP.
The original technical contributors and co-authors of the SysML 1.0a specification were Laurent Balmelli, Conrad Bock, Rick Steiner, Alan Moore and Roger Burkhart. The SysML Partners distributed their first open source SysML specification drafts in 2004, and submitted SysML 1.0a to the OMG for technology adoption in November 2005.
OMG SysML
After a series of competing SysML specification proposals, a SysML Merge Team was proposed to the OMG in April 2006. This proposal was voted upon and adopted by the OMG in July 2006 as OMG SysML, to differentiate it from the original open source specification from which it was derived. Because OMG SysML is derived from open source SysML, it also includes an open source license for distribution and use.
The OMG SysML v. 1.0 specification was issued by the OMG as an Available Specification in September 2007. The current version of OMG SysML is v1.6, which was issued by the OMG in December 2019. In addition, SysML was published by the
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
(ISO) in 2017 as a full
International Standard
international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...
(IS), ISO/IEC 19514:2017 (Information technology -- Object management group systems modeling language).
The OMG has been working on the next generation of SysML and issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for version 2 on December 8, 2017, following its open standardization process.
The resulting specification, which will incorporate language enhancements from experience applying the language, will include a UML profile, a
metamodel
A metamodel or surrogate model is a model of a model, and metamodeling is the process of generating such metamodels. Thus metamodeling or meta-modeling is the analysis, construction and development of the frames, rules, constraints, models and ...
, and a mapping between the profile and metamodel.
A second RFP for a SysML v2
Application Programming Interface
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...
(API) and Services RFP was issued in June 2018. Its aim is to enhance the interoperability of
model-based systems engineering Model-based systems engineering (MBSE), according to the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), is the ''formalized application of modeling to support system requirements, design, analysis, verification and validation activities beg ...
tools.
Diagrams
SysML includes 9 types of diagram, some of which are taken from
UML
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
The creation of UML was originally m ...
.
*
Activity diagram
Activity diagrams are graphical representations of workflows of stepwise activities and actions with support for choice, iteration and concurrency. In the Unified Modeling Language, activity diagrams are intended to model both computational and o ...
*
Block definition diagram
*
Internal block diagram
*
Package diagram
*
Parametric diagram
Parametric may refer to:
Mathematics
* Parametric equation, a representation of a curve through equations, as functions of a variable
*Parametric statistics, a branch of statistics that assumes data has come from a type of probability distribu ...
*
Requirement diagram
*
Sequence diagram
A sequence diagram or system sequence diagram (SSD) shows process interactions arranged in time sequence in the field of software engineering. It depicts the processes involved and the sequence of messages exchanged between the processes needed ...
*
State machine diagram
*
Use case diagram
A use case diagram is a graphical depiction of a user's possible interactions with a system. A use case diagram shows various use cases and different types of users the system has and will often be accompanied by other types of diagrams as well. Th ...
Tools
There are several modeling tool vendors already offering SysML support, or are in the process of updating their tools to comply with the OMG SysML specification. Lists of tool vendors who support, or have announced support of, SysML or OMG SysML can be found on the SysML Forum or SysML
websites, respectively.
Model exchange
As an
OMG UML 2.0 profile
Profile or profiles may refer to:
Art, entertainment and media Music
* ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973
* ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005
* ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005
* ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959
* '' ''Profi ...
, SysML models are designed to be exchanged using the
XML Metadata Interchange
The XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) is an Object Management Group (OMG) standard for exchanging metadata information via Extensible Markup Language (XML).
It can be used for any metadata whose metamodel can be expressed in Meta-Object Facil ...
(XMI) standard. In addition, architectural alignment work is underway to support the
ISO 10303
ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. It is an ASCII-based format. Its official title is: ''Automation systems and integration — Product data represe ...
(also known as STEP, the Standard for the Exchange of Product model data) AP-233 standard for exchanging and sharing information between
systems engineering software applications and tools.
See also
*
SoaML SoaML (Service-oriented architecture Modeling LanguageSoaML http://www.omg.org/spec/SoaML/ ) is an open source specification project from the Object Management Group (OMG), describing a UML profile and metamodel for the modeling and design of servi ...
*
Energy Systems Language
The Energy Systems Language, also referred to as Energese, Energy Circuit Language, or Generic Systems Symbols, is a modelling language used for composing energy flow diagrams in the field of systems ecology. It was developed by Howard T. Odum ...
*
Object Process Methodology
Object Process Methodology (OPM) is a conceptual modeling language and methodology for capturing knowledge and designing systems, specified as ISO/ PAS 19450. Based on a minimal universal ontology of stateful objects and processes that tra ...
*
Universal Systems Language Universal Systems Language (USL) is a systems modeling language and formal method for the specification and design of software and other complex systems. It was designed by Margaret Hamilton based on her experiences writing flight software for the ...
*
List of SysML tools
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
* Introduction to Systems Modeling Language (SysML)
Part 1an
Part 2 YouTube.
SysML Open Source Specification ProjectProvides information related to SysML open source specifications, FAQ, mailing lists, and open source licenses.
OMG SysML WebsiteFurnishes information related to the OMG SysML specification, SysML tutorial, papers, and tool vendor information.
* Article
EE Times article on SysML (May 8, 2006)
* SE^2 MBSE Challenge team:
Telescope Modeling
* Paper
System Modelling Language explained (PDF format)
Bruce Douglass: Real-Time Agile Systems and Software DevelopmentList of Popular SysML Modeling Tools
{{Authority control
Unified Modeling Language
Systems engineering
Modeling languages