2004 UK Spring Conference
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This year we are pleased to offer a choice of 5 full day tutorials and two half day tutorials: |
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2004 UK Spring Conference
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This year we are pleased to offer a choice of 5 full day tutorials and two half day tutorials: |
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Duration: Full Day
Presenters: Giles Gibson, Gordon Grange, Bob Dale ; MBDA
Objectives of the Workshop: The workshop encourages attendees to write better requirements by developing an appreciation of the whole requirement life cycle.
The attendees of this workshop will gain practical experience of:-
The exercise also allows attendees to:-
(The exercise does not cover the use of Requirements Management tools.)
Overview:
The workshop is structured as a practical exercise. The participants are split to form two competing teams. Through the course of the day the competition is to see which team can earn the most money. The biggest determinant of who wins is the manner in which each team uses requirements.
The day is an intense and time pressured, yet light-hearted, experience. In the morning the teams act as prime contractors on two different products related to the Centistani industry of mining marbles. They elicit requirements from a variety of sources and prepare a set of requirements that are delivered to a subcontractor. In the afternoon the teams act as those subcontractors; they build and install the product in Centistan and demonstrate it to the prime contractor. As the last part of the exercise, the prime contractor then has to sell the product to the original customer. Finally, the successes and failures experienced by the teams are discussed. The presenters act as the customers and as consultants to the teams.
The exercise can be summarised as follows:
Target Audience:
The workshop is aimed at experienced systems engineers but would also be of benefit to experienced software, electronic and mechanical design engineers and project managers. It is applicable to all industries where bespoke products are developed. No domain knowledge is required but practical skills to Blue Peter badge 2 would be an asset.
As the two teams will meet quite different problems during the exercise, two participants from the same company will go away with complementary experiences.
The workshop is designed to be run with a group of 8 to 12 people.
Course Material:
Where possible, some course material relating to the exercise will be e-mailed to attendees prior to the workshop. The remainder will be given as appropriate during the day.
Notes on the likely problems encountered during, and lessons learned from, the workshop will be available for the closing session.
Credentials of Presenters
The presenters have a combined 70 years of Systems Engineering experience in the defence and aerospace sector. All now work for MBDA, the Anglo/Franco/Italian missile supplier. Projects they have worked on range from a control system for Concorde, through various sensors for missiles and military aircraft, to whole weapon systems. They have experience of working with a Customer to define his need (or even working in advance of finding a customer) through to trying to convince a customer to pay for the developed product. The presenters devised this exercise to show how requirements influence the whole project lifecycle.
Duration: Full Day
Presenter: Derek Hitchins
Aims and Objectives
To examine perhaps the most interesting, yet least well-addressed part of the systems engineering cycle the conception of a system solution. By the end of the tutorial, attendees should have a sound understanding of how to:
identify, bound and explore a problem space
conceive potential system solutions
design and optimise a system solution,
prove that they have done it.
Overview of Content
The tutorial will comprise a set of presentations, showing methods, with examples, interspersed with discussion:
It will start with a brief review of systems philosophy and systems science, for those who are new to the bases of systems engineering. The NASA Apollo missions of the 1960s will illustrate the development of todays systems science and systems engineering philosophy.
This will be followed by an introduction to RSM (Rigorous Soft Method), as an example of a so-called soft method for exploring problem spaces, and identifying conceptual system solutions. By way of practical illustration, RSM will be applied to the intractable national issue of nuclear power generation, to see if a rational solution is conceivable.
Next, a method for modelling interacting systems will be presented. This will be illustrated using non-linear dynamic modelling techniques, together with simple optimisation techniques, which together result in the optimum design of a set of interacting systems. The example of this method will be based on conceiving the capability of a mythical land force during engagements.
Each session will be followed by a comprehensive question and answer session, during which attendees may explore aspects that they have not understood, or may challenge any of the ideas or methods presented.
Course Material Provided
Each attendee will receive a full set of the presentation material, including detailed slides not shown during the presentations. The slides will contain a full bibliography to direct further investigation.
Credentials of presenter:
Inaugural president of UK Chapter of INCOSE.
Received INCOSEs Pioneer Award, 1998
International lecturer and practising consultant in systems engineering
Doctorate in Systems Science
Fellow of the IEE, RAeS and the CMI
Full c.v. on my website, www.hitchins.co.uk
Intended Audience/Potential Interest
The tutorial should be of interest to anyone concerned about the conception and design of solutions to problems. These often appear as Requirements. The tutorial concerns itself essentially with the formulation of sound, realistic, requirements that can be shown, in advance, to be an effective solution to a problem.
Interested parties should be those interested in the first half of the systems engineering cycle; government, those concerned with acquisition, system designers in industry, tool designers and vendors.
Duration: Full Day
Presenters : Matthew Hause, Francis Thom; Artisan Software Tools
This 1-day tutorial will introduce Systems Engineers into the practical application of the Unified Modelling Language (UML) specifically for Systems Engineering. It will initially look at the whole of the UML and then introduce (with an on-going Cruise Control Case Study) the specific areas of the UML that are of interest to Systems Engineers.
Aims and Objectives:
To provide an understanding of the principals of object technology
To enable attendees to integrate object-oriented modelling techniques into a development process
To give attendees the confidence to apply these new concepts to their project
To provide attendees with an understanding of how the real-time extensions enable Systems Engineers to communicate their requirements to both customer and hardware and software engineers
Demonstrate using UML for systems engineering of safety critical/mission critical systems, including UML traceability and integration with requirements tools.
Provide a practical example of trade-off analysis of competing solution spaces.
Course Workshop
Approximately 50% of the course involves practical application of the techniques. Attendees work in small groups to complete a number of worked examples, providing hands-on experience of applying the techniques and familiarity with the concepts. Use is made of ARTiSANs Real-time Studio to facilitate an understanding of developed designs. All examples are based on real-world, real-time systems.
Previous History of Tutorial:
This tutorial has run at INCOSE UK Spring Symposium 2001, 2002 and 2003. An extended 3-day Tutorial was developed and has been successfully delivered as a public course and to several companies.
What will be learnt :
Essential object-oriented concepts and terminology
Object-oriented modelling techniques using UML
How to apply object-oriented principles and techniques in the development of systems
How to apply an object-oriented based incremental approach to systems development
How UML provides traceability from requirements to implementation
Course Material provided :
Attendee Handbook
All worked examples and solutions
Target Audience:
Systems Engineers embarking on a project using object-oriented Analysis and Design for the first time.
Pre-requisites
Some understanding of object-oriented modelling techniques is helpful, but not necessary. An understanding of systems engineering principles.
Duration: Full Day
Presenters : Dave Exelby and Martin Caunt from HVR Consulting Services Ltd.
What is System Dynamics?: System Dynamics is a well-established modelling methodology. It focuses on the explicit representation of a system in terms of feedback and dynamic behaviour and includes qualitative mapping and quantitative simulation elements. System Dynamics has been applied to a huge variety of applications from complex engineering projects through to public policy modelling over the last 30 years. Although it is not a specialist systems engineering approach, it can be effectively applied to requirements capture, system design and project planning.
Aim:
The aim of the workshop is to introduce participants to the basic concepts of, and provide hand-on experience of the System Dynamics method. The workshop will cover both the use of causal mapping (soft modelling) for system description and quantitative simulation (hard modelling) for performance analysis. A range of pertinent cases studies and additional sources will also be presented. A set of problems will be used to provide participants with the opportunity to practice these newfound skills within the workshop environment. A copy of an entry-level simulation tool will be provided to participants for this purpose and for them to take away. This workshop will give participants the confidence to explore the approach in more detail and to recognise its utility for systems engineering problems as they arise.
Overview of the workshop:
Introduction to SD (origins, pedigree and links to Systems Engineering)
Overview of the SD methodology
Qualitative SD modelling using SD as a key soft approach through causal mapping to describe dynamic systems
Hands-on case study for participants causal mapping
Review of qualitative SD applications
Quantitative SD modelling using SD to simulate system behaviour
Introduction to an SD simulation tool MyStrategy
Hands-on case study for participants building a first model
Review of quantitative SD applications
Overview of SD tools and other resources
Summary / Discussion
Course Material Provided:
Copies of the slide materials will be provided as well as a copy of the MyStrategy SD tool.
Audience Prerequisites
Participants need to supply a laptop computer in order to take advantage of the hands on practical modelling session. A complimentary copy of the MyStrategy software will be distributed to all participants. Should there be a shortage of computers then some pairing of participants would be expected.
Target Audience
The workshop will appeal to all those with an interest in the application of soft methods and its links to hard analysis. System Dynamics is a methodology that tackles both qualitative and quantitative modelling. Systems engineers across all sectors will be able to use the approach it has been applied to software engineering, defence acquisition, rail infrastructure to name but a few.
Presenters Credentials:
Dave Exelby is a Principal Consultant at HVR and team manager of their strategy team. Dave has been applying System Dynamics for the last 10 years. These have been across a broad range of studies ranging from strategy consulting to FMCG companies to modelling of all aspects of acquisition within the defence sector. Dave is involved in the System Dynamics community in the UK as a policy council member of the UK Chapter of the System Dynamics Society and has recently been elected to the council of the parent worldwide society. Dave led the System Dynamics stream at the INCOSE Autumn Assembly in 2003.
Martin Caunt is a Senior Consultant with HVRs Defence Analysis team. Martin has a broad range of Operational Analysis and Systems Engineering experience applying soft analytical techniques in support of Operational Analysis studies, and large Systems Engineering projects within the defence sector. Martin has over 6 years experience in the definition and expression of requirements, system and simulation modelling.
Duration: Full Day
Presenters Dr. Jon Holt and Ian Wilson; Brass Bullet Ltd
Aims and Objectives
The main aim of this intensive full-day workshop is to provide attendees with a hands-on appreciation of the new ISO/IEC standard for Systems engineering life cycle management and to allow them the opportunity to apply the concepts to a mini-project involving building up a fully-working system out of Lego.
After a brief introduction to the standard and its key concepts, the group will be split into small project teams and, for the rest of the day, will carry out a project to build a better robot than the other teams.
Each team will be provided with an ISO/IEC-compliant process model and from there they will have to: assign roles and responsibilities, plan major phases of the project, plan individual phase iteration and apply processes to the development of the robot. Each team will start with a set of requirements and process artefact templates and from there it is up to the team to plan and manage the effective development of the project.
The project itself will involve developing a small robot using the Lego Mindstorms building sets. The development will include: building robots, programming the robots, developing sensors and bespoke weaponry for the robots and the integration, verification & validation of the final system.
Each project will undergo a mini-audit in the context of ISO/IEC 15288 and there will be a robot challenge at the end of the day to see which robot will carry off the ultimate robot prize! (Probably a bottle of wine!)
Overview of Content
Introduction to ISO/IEC 15288
Introduction to the project
Mid-way project assessment
Team presentations/audit
Robot challenge
Course material provided
Hard copies of all slides
Hard copies of the process model
Hard copies of process artefact templates
Access to source standard
Credentials of Presenter
The course will be delivered by Dr. Jon Holt, of Brass Bullet Ltd, who has over 10 years experience in all aspects of systems engineering. He is a Fellow of the IEE, an ISO 9001-qualified auditor under the TickIT scheme and a qualified assessor for ISO 15504 (SPICE) and EFQM. He is a visiting lecturer at several universities, the author of the book UML for systems engineering watching the wheels and is currently the chair of the IEE Professional Network for Systems Engineers.
Intended Audience/Potential Interest
This tutorial will be of interest to all systems engineers and managers, including:
People who work with standards/processes
Project managers
Quality engineers
System integrators
Academics
Students
And anyone who wants to increase their awareness of this important new standard.
Duration: Half Day
Presenter Alan Smith, UCL Centre for Systems Engineering
Aims and Objectives:
To recognise the threats and opportunities associated with a dynamically changing supply chain environment and to provide strategies for dealing with them in a Systems Engineering context. For example, dealing with the situation where a reducing market forces tier 2 suppliers to take on a tier 1 capability in order to protect their tier 2 markets.
To describe the roles, skills and demands of the various supply chain participants (From Customer through Systems Integrator, Tier1, Tier2, to COTS Supplier).
To give a practical method that allows an organisation to measure its capabilities within a supply chain context.
To allow organisation to develop strategies for thriving within any part or parts of the chain, particularly for organisations seeking to move up to become a tier 1 supplier.
Overview of Content :
Many organisation are rethinking their place with the systems development supply chain, or have been forced to do so following a restructuring of their business context. The expectations of customers within this supply chain are highly dependent upon their position within it. For instance the demands at Tier 1 are quite different to say Tier 2 yet organisations often announce there intention to move up to Tier 1 without fully appreciating the capabilities needed, risks and consequences of failure.
The tutorial will first explore the supply chain associated with the development of bespoke systems, from User to Component Supplier. For each element of the chain the capability needed and relationship with customers and suppliers will be expanded and discussed.
Recognising that many large organisations may have capabilities and experience is various parts of the food chain a simple method of evaluation will be provided which allows an organisation to identify its strengths, and weakness within the food chain and to recognise any associated skill gaps. Mitigation strategies will be provided for some of the more common risks.
The tutorial will then go on to explore strategies that organisations may adopt to turn threats into opportunities and so thrive within this demanding environment.
The work is based in part on findings from an EPSRC supported Instrumentation Supply Chain Analysis and Modelling project being conducted at UCL.
Course Material Provided :
Copy of viewgraphs with associated notes
Evaluation template and guide
Credentials of presenter:
Associate Director for Programmes at UCLs Mullard Space Science Laboratory, the UKs largest university based space hardware group.
Director of UCLs Centre for Systems Engineering
Intended Audience/potential interest:
Defence, transport, instrumentation suppliers throughout the food chain.
Presenter Jeremy Dick, Jonathan Chard; Telelogic UK
Duration: Half Day
A sandwich without a filling thats what textual requirements management alone is like. With a rich filling of modelling in-between each layer of requirements, the sandwich becomes more interesting, less dry and far more palatable. This tutorial is about putting processes in place that allow diagram-based system modelling (using examples drawn from UML 2.0) and text-based requirements management to work together effectively. Both bring benefits to the party: modelling provides visualization and formality; requirements management provides structure, traceability and textual rationale for design. Modelling techniques alone are not enough. A clear approach to selecting and organizing those techniques into a coherent process in the key to success. The best thing since sliced bread . bon appétit!
Tutorial Objectives:
We aim to give attendees a clear vision of:-·
Detailed Tutorial Outline:
1. Setting the context:
What is systems engineering (SE)?
What is requirements management (RM)?
What is system modelling (SM)?
2. The sandwich:
The complementary nature of RM and SM.
Managing complexity through layers.
Levels of abstraction problem v. solution.
Capturing rationale.
3. A generic process:
Activities at each layer.
A data model.
Requirements documents v. design documents.
Traceability.
4. Modelling examples:
Summary of diagrams (classes, use cases, sequence diagrams, state charts, architecture diagrams).
Modelling in the problem domain.
Modelling in the functional domain.
Modelling in the design domain.
5. The design document:
How to organize the model.
Capturing design rationale.
Structuring the design document.
6. Conclusion:
The benefits of the combined approach.
Tool support.
Intended Audience:
This tutorial is intended for systems engineers (working as customers or suppliers), software engineers, project managers, and those otherwise interested in system modelling.
Audience Prerequisites:
Attendees are expected to be aware of, but not necessarily familiar with, systems engineering, requirements management, system modelling using UML.
Presenters Biography:
Dr Jeremy Dick has been a principal consultant for Telelogic (originally QSS) for 7 years, working with the requirements management tool, DOORS. Co-author of a recent book entitled Requirements Engineering (Springer), Jeremy has considerable experience in providing training, consultancy and thought leadership in requirements management processes, and effective tool support. This role, combined with a broad software engineering back-ground gained over two decades, puts him in a unique position to share experiences across a wide range of industries.
Dr Jonathon Chard has been a senior applications consultant with Telelogic for over three years, during which time he has worked extensively with UML and the Tau family of visual modelling, development and testing tools. Having a formal background in electrical engineering, Jonathon has some fifteen years of experience in systems and embedded software design, a significant part of this experience gained within the automotive industry.
Last Updated: 29 February, 2004