Object-Process Methodology Research Articles

A Model‐Based Approach to Unifying Disparate Project Management Tools for Project Classification and Customized Management

AbstractModern project managers are aware that different types of projects need different styles of project management. A construction project is very different from a high‐tech research program in several ways, including how each is managed. The NTCP “Diamond” framework (Novelty‐Technology‐Complexity‐Pace) suggests classifying complex projects according to four dimensions such that the values attributed to each of these dimensions indicate a recommended style of management for increasing the likelihood of the project's success. It may be difficult to attribute values to these four dimensions in a large and complex project, which calls for systematic analysis of the project as part of its planning phase. The object‐process methodology (OPM) caters to such systematic step‐by‐step analysis by decomposing a project into its fundamental building blocks – objects, possibly with states, and processes that transform the objects. This paper suggests that the confluence of OPM and NTCP can improve the project planning phase and improve the project's overall chances of success.

Model-based risk-oriented robust systems design with object-process methodology

We introduce and demonstrate ROSE – risk-oriented systems engineering, a new approach that integrates risk aspects with system analysis, modelling and design. ROSE is designed to improve the integration and coordination of system design and risk management by fusing robust design paradigms with risk analytic techniques in a model-based environment. While system design and risk management are two critical systems engineering processes, their integration is loose, because too often systems engineers and risk analysts use different semantics, techniques, and tools. This unfortunate disconnects renders risk management efforts detached from system design and management. Object-process methodology (OPM) is a bimodal visual and textual conceptual modelling language and an emerging ISO Standard (19450) for system modelling and design. Making use of OPM, ROSE integrates risk identification, modelling, analysis, mitigation, and control aspects into the robust system design process, and later into system deployment, configuration, and management. Using a commercial airliners defence system against shoulder missiles as a case in point, we demonstrate the principles and benefits of ROSE in risk-oriented systems.

An OPM conceptual model‐based executable simulation environment: Implementation and evaluation

AbstractConceptual design is a crucial system lifecycle stage; but systematic methods for conceptual design evaluation are not well developed, and existing approaches are not satisfactory. In this work we describe implementation and assessment of an advanced simulation environment that can serve conceptual design evaluation purposes using Object‐Process Methodology (OPM). The simulation exploits two major advantages of the OPM modeling language: its integration of the structural and behavioral aspects of the system in a single type of diagram and the hierarchical organization of the model diagrams. Simulation of the system model is instrumental in understanding and exploring the behavioral aspects of the system under study and uncovering logical and conceptual problems, such as incorrect control flow, logical errors, and missing structural relations among objects. Understanding the model and correcting it are achieved via an intuitive user interface and a host of debugging capabilities, including “lifespan” and “Debug Info” components. Using these components, one can explore the state of any OPM entity and be aware of a variety of potential problems that are manifested during the simulation process. © 20133 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 16

Improving Project–Product Lifecycle Management with Model–Based Design Structure Matrix: A joint project management and systems engineering approach

AbstractWe investigate potential benefits of employing the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) in the context of Model–Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for the purposes of analyzing and improving the design of a product–project ensemble. Focusing on process DSM, we present an algorithm for a bidirectional transformation framework between a product–project system model and its corresponding Model–Based DSM (MDSM). Using Object–Process Methodology (OPM) as the underlying modeling language, we examine and characterize useful and insightful relationships between the system model and its MDSM. An unmanned aerial vehicle case study demonstrates the semantics of and analogy between various types of relationships as they are reflected in both the OPM system model and the MDSM derived from it. We conclude with further research direction on showing how clustering of DSM processes can be reflected back as an improvement of the OPM model. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 16

Constructing and Evaluating “as-is” and “to-be” OPM Models for the Healthcare Sector for Adoption of Vscan

Current healthcare systems are no longer sustainable; governments around the world have come to realise that the rapidly growing demand for healthcare cannot be matched by sufficient financial resources, and that improving efficiency and cutting costs is not enough. System-wide changes that include people, products, processes, and services are required. All the relevant stakeholders need to get involved in developing alternative healthcare system models and be able to understand and interact with models of such systems in order to accelerate the adoption and diffusion of changes. This paper presents a systems approach to developing affordable business models based on the specific case example of novel portable ultrasound scanning device – the GE Vscan – for use in primary care. We investigated whole system changes required for adopting Vscan. Systems engineering principles are applied to represent alternative business models around this technology. Object Process Methodology (OPM) is utilized to visualise the conceptual models in order for subject matter experts to successfully participate in the development and validation of alternative healthcare systems. The paper concludes with a discussion on wider implications of adopting systems engineering methods and techniques.

Developing a Holistic Modeling Approach for Search-based System Architecting

This paper proposes a holistic modeling approach that combines the capabilities of Object Process Methodology (OPM), Colored Petri Net (CPN), and feature model. The resultant holistic model not only can capture the structural, behavioral, and dynamic aspects of a system, allowing simulation and strong analysis methods to be applied, it can also specify the architectural design space. This modeling approach is developed to facilitate the implementation of search-based system architecting where search algorithms are used to explore design trade space for good architecture alternatives. Such architecting approach integrates certain model construction, alternative generation, simulation, and assessment processes into a coherent and automated framework. Both the proposed holistic modeling approach and the search-based architecting framework are generic. They are targeted at systems that can be specified by conceptual models using object-oriented or process-oriented paradigms. The broad applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated with the configuration of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) under multi- objective optimization as an example. The test results showed that the proposed modeling approach could cover a huge number of architecture alternatives and supported the assessment of several performance measures. A set of quality results was obtained after running the optimization algorithm following the proposed search-based architecting framework.

Conceptual Model-Based Systems Biology: Mapping Knowledge and Discovering Gaps in the mRNA Transcription Cycle

We propose a Conceptual Model-based Systems Biology framework for qualitative modeling, executing, and eliciting knowledge gaps in molecular biology systems. The framework is an adaptation of Object-Process Methodology (OPM), a graphical and textual executable modeling language. OPM enables concurrent representation of the system's structure—the objects that comprise the system, and behavior—how processes transform objects over time. Applying a top-down approach of recursively zooming into processes, we model a case in point—the mRNA transcription cycle. Starting with this high level cell function, we model increasingly detailed processes along with participating objects. Our modeling approach is capable of modeling molecular processes such as complex formation, localization and trafficking, molecular binding, enzymatic stimulation, and environmental intervention. At the lowest level, similar to the Gene Ontology, all biological processes boil down to three basic molecular functions: catalysis, binding/dissociation, and transporting. During modeling and execution of the mRNA transcription model, we discovered knowledge gaps, which we present and classify into various types. We also show how model execution enhances a coherent model construction. Identification and pinpointing knowledge gaps is an important feature of the framework, as it suggests where research should focus and whether conjectures about uncertain mechanisms fit into the already verified model.

Integrating the Project with the Product for Applied Systems Engineering Management

Abstract Systems engineering planning and control are the essentials of systems engineering management. While the project management is concerned with such concepts as tasks, milestones, and budget, systems engineering is concerned with the product, requirements is needs to meet, its architecture, and its performance. In spite of the clear difference in the ontology used, both managers and engineers are equally required in order for the project-product ensemble to succeed. This underlines the need for a language and model as common bases for communication between managers and engineers. Based on this observation, we propose Project-Product Lifecycle Management (PPLM) as a combined model-based approach for planning project-product ensembles. Utilizing Object Process Methodology (OPM), the PPLM model integrates the project domain with the product domain via shared ontology that explicitly relates project to product entities within a unifying frame of reference.

Information system integration model of manufacturing enterprise based on object process methodology and its application

Manufacturing industry needs a more effective and unified information system to meet market demand changes and societal/environmental requirements. This paper compares two system modeling approaches, Object Process Methodology (OPM) and Unified Modeling Language (UML), to find out the advantages of OPM in modeling the information system integration models proposed in the international standard International Electrotechnical Commission/International Organization for Standardization (IEC/ISO) 62264 (an adoption of International Society of Automation SP95). This paper rebuilds the information system integration models in IEC/ISO 62264 based on OPM instead of UML. The application in an oil refinery factory verifies the effectiveness of these models and the convenience of OPM. © 2012 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Computational System Architecture Development Using a Holistic Modeling Approach

This paper presents an innovative system architecture development framework that allows the search of optimum architecture solutions within large design space by automating certain model construction, alternative generation, simulation, and assessment tasks. Such framework is facilitated by a holistic modeling approach that combines the capabilities of Object Process Methodology (OPM), Colored Petri Net (CPN) and feature model. The resultant holistic model not only can capture the structural, behavior, and dynamic aspects of a system, allowing strong analysis methods to be applied, but also can specify the architectural design space allowing generation of architecture alternatives that cover it. The proposed framework and suggested implementation is generic targeted at systems that can be specified by logic models using object-oriented paradigm. A partial implementation of the proposed approaches is presented with the design of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) as an example, which is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem with the Genetic Algorithm (GA, particularly, NSGA-2) as the search algorithm. The RMS is a multi-part flow line structure with identical machines in each production stage.

Research on Parallel Computation Architecture Based on Object Computing Network

In this paper, a multi-body system dynamics problem is considered as a complex system modeling and computation problem. A parallel programming model and its execution environment are designed to reduce model complexity and to improve computational speed. In this architecture, the problem is divided into two levels: 1. Find a parallel mathematical algorithm to describe the behavior of this multi-body system. 2. Build a unified programming language that could leverage many different pieces of computational resources, such as symbolic computing, and numerical libraries. To tackle the first level, Space-Time Finite Element Method (FEM) is applied. The Space-Time FEM formats of Newton-Euler formula is given, as well as its constraint formula. This algorithm has avoided the loop operation during the time field solving. To tackle the second level, a network-based functional programming language - Object Computing Network (OCN) is designed. OCN is inspired by Object-Process Methodology (OPM). In OCN, every computation behavior is treated as a function, which is constructed by a three element set: {Var, Rule. Condition}. Three basic patterns - Branching, Synchronizing, Merging are given in OCN to prove the flexibility of OCN. An communication interface is designed in OCN to connect different programming languages together. Two multi-body system dynamics computing models - Semi-discretization method and Space-Time discretization method - are constructed with OCN, and a significant contrast in task parallelization is shown by different OCN models.

Synergistic Model‐Based Systems Engineering with SysML and OPM

AbstractModel‐Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is emerging as a pivotal paradigm, placing modeling as the underlying activity of systems' and products' lifecycle management. SysML is the OMG standard for MBSE, while Object‐Process Methodology (OPM), one of the six leading INCOSE MBSE methodologies, is in the process of becoming ISO standard and the basis for model‐based standards authoring. OPM and SysML complement each other, as each is especially suited for different lifecycle stages: OPM, which is simple and holistic, is most fit for the early conceptual stages, whereas SysML, which provides for expressing details, is good for later design stages. The tutorial introduces the principles, syntax, and semantics of OPM and SysML, highlighting their commonalities and differences, and showing how to use both in ways that promote synergy and improve critical system features, notably clarity, consistency, and completeness. The resulting model is an indispensible blueprint that puts all the stakeholders on the same page across the system lifecycle span.

A graph grammar-based formal validation of object-process diagrams

Two basic requirements from a system's conceptual model are correctness and comprehensibility. Most modeling methodologies satisfy only one of these apparently contradicting requirements, usually comprehensibility, leaving aside problems of correctness and ambiguousness that are associated with expressiveness. Some formal modeling languages do exist, but in these languages a complete model of a complex system is fairly complicated to understand. Object-process methodology (OPM) is a holistic systems modeling methodology that combines the two major aspects of a system--structure and behavior--in one model, providing mechanisms to manage the complexity of the model using refinement-abstraction operations, which divide a complex system into many interconnected diagrams. Although the basic syntax and semantics of an OPM model are defined, they are incomplete and leave room for incorrect or ambiguous models. This work advances the formal definition of OPM by providing a graph grammar for creating and checking OPM diagrams. The grammar provides a validation methodology of the semantic and syntactic correctness of a single object-process diagram.

COIM: An object‐process based method for analyzing architectures of complex, interconnected, large‐scale socio‐technical systems

AbstractThere is growing evidence for the relevance of human behavioral factors in successful development of new products, processes, and services. The evidence is even clearer when the forces affecting the development and evolution of long‐lived, large, and open complex socio‐technical systems are examined. Methods that study the architecture of these systems can help scholars and practitioners to better understand, manage, and develop socio‐technical systems. We propose an approach and a method to address these needs that is grounded in the theory of systems architecture and builds on the strengths of Object Process Methodology (OPM) and the process for representing Complex Large‐scale Interconnected Open Socio‐technical (CLIOS) systems. We do so by integrating these methods into the CLIOS‐OPM Integrated Method (COIM). COIM is conducive to studying a system's architecture and its evolution, as it is enhanced by a set of qualitative methods for answering questions about the reasons (why) and process (how) of change in human‐made systems over time. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Generating SysML views from an OPM model: Design and evaluation

AbstractConceptual modeling is key to Model‐Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches. OPM (Object‐Process Methodology) and SysML (OMG Systems Modeling Language) are two state‐of‐the‐art conceptual modeling languages. While both languages aim at the same purpose of providing a means for general‐purpose systems engineering, these languages take different approaches in realizing this goal. As each of the languages has its relative strengths and weaknesses, ways to create synergies between them are considered in this work. We propose combining advantages of each language through automatic generation of several SysML views from an OPM model. To this end, we developed a new algorithm and software application for implementing the OPM‐to‐SysML views generation, and evaluated the results through an experiment conducted for this purpose. The formally constructed experiment described in this paper, which has been designed to test the quality of the auto‐generated diagrams and their impact on system comprehension, indicates that the addition of some auto‐generated SysML views to an OPM system model has increased system comprehension level. Our approach can benefit various stakeholders by promoting better system understanding, standardization, and improved interoperability. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 14:

11.3.1 Systems Engineers' Perceptions on the Adequacy of Project Management Methods for Systems Engineering Management

AbstractSystems Engineering Management (SEM) is being developed hand in hand with the maturation of systems engineering, emphasizing the management of the joint project‐product ensemble.Most SEM applications use traditional Project Management (PM) methods and tools, including Gantt chart, PERT, Critical Path Method, System Dynamics, Earned Value Method, and Design Structure Matrix. Object Process Methodology has also been recently studied as a vehicle for Project‐Product Lifecycle Management. We examine how systems engineers perceive the extent to which PM methods support SEM. We verified that project and product are viewed as two complementary facets of SEM, and that certain PM methods address both domains better than others with respect to particular examined factors.

An Object-Process-Based Modeling Language for Multiagent Systems

While a number of modeling languages for constructing multiagent systems (MASs) have been suggested, none of them is widely accepted and used. A prominent reason for this is the gap that exists between agent-oriented modeling languages and the agent-based system modeling needs, including accessibility, flexibility, and expressiveness. This paper addresses the need for such a language by proposing object-process methodology (OPM)/MAS, an agent modeling language (AML) that extends OPM with an intermediate metamodel of the MAS domain. Three case studies and a comparison to contemporary AMLs demonstrate the novelty and benefits of OPM/MAS.

A methodology for eliciting and modeling exceptions

Exceptions in safety–critical systems must be addressed during conceptual design and risk analysis. We developed a conceptual model of exceptions, a methodology for eliciting and modeling exceptions, and templates for modeling them in an extension of the Object-Process Methodology (OPM)—a system analysis and design methodology and language that uses a single graphical model for describing systems, including their timing exceptions, which has been shown to be an effective modeling methodology. Using an antibiotics treatment guideline as a case study, we demonstrate the value of our approach in eliciting and modeling exceptions that occur in clinical care systems.

Bridging the requirements–implementation modeling gap with object–process methodology

A model-based system development cycle involves two semantically distinct aspects: the requirements specification and the implementation model. Due to the conceptual and semantic differences between these two major system lifecycle stages, the transition from requirements to implementation is inherently a noncoherent process. Consequently, the system requirements are not faithfully transformed into the working system. This paper introduces an effective solution via an Integrated Modeling Paradigm (IMP) that combines the requirements and implementation domain models into a unified system model that continuously represents the system as it evolves. The IMP was implemented in an Object–Process Methodology (OPM) development environment. This implementation reinforces OPM with the capability to bridge the significant conceptual gap that lies right at the heart of the development process. A user survey has shown that this OPM-based solution is easy to use and can indeed help bridge the information gap, yielding a better match between the required and implemented systems than the currently accepted practice.

THE APPLICATION-BASED DOMAIN ANALYSIS APPROACH AND ITS OBJECT-PROCESS METHODOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION

Domain engineering can simplify the development of software systems in specific domains. During domain analysis, the first step of domain engineering, the domain is modeled at an abstract level, providing guidelines for modeling applications within that domain. Drawbacks of existing domain analysis approaches include poor guidelines for domain-specific application modeling, insufficient validations capability, and limited usability. In this paper we apply the Application-based Domain Modeling (ADOM) to the Object-Process Methodology (OPM). This application requires the extension of OPM with a classification mechanism. Showing that the ADOM-OPM approach overcomes limitations of existing approaches, we further verify experimentally that the level of correctness of an ADOM extended OPM model is higher than that achieved without the extension. Finally, we ensure that the proposed extension does not degrade the generic vanilla form of OPM.