System Data Management: An Inter-Disciplinary Collaboration Architecture for Systems Engineering

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to integrating systems engineering (SE) artifacts and methods with discipline-specific detailed design artifacts and processes, for the purpose of facilitating inter-disciplinary collaboration. In particular, it addresses the lifecycle management of complex products involving mechanical, electrical, electronics and software aspects, and being designed following a formal product development methodology. The primary motivation of the approach is to capture and maintain the traceability between the concrete artifacts stored in discipline-specific “repositories” and the abstract artifacts used to support system-level decisions as well as system integration. The proposed approach acknowledges the fundamental differences that exist between the various engineering disciplines and therefore favors a loose coupling based on a process-centric management of the artifacts traceability links. These considerations lead to an inter-disciplinary collaboration and infrastructure pattern called “system data management” (SDM), with the role of enforcing the integrity of the inter-disciplinary traceability between artifacts. As a byproduct, this approach suggests a novel perspective on product data management (PDM) and software configuration management (SCM) integration that sharply contrasts with point-to-point integration solutions. The authors have implemented a prototype based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and existing PDM and SCM technologies.