Implementation of a model based interface management tool

About

AEON Engineering entered into a contract to migrate legacy engineering documentation into a model based database for the Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO).

Project

The purpose of this contract was to perform the interrogation and organisation of a legacy set of engineering documentation - converting paper interface specifications into a database of over 1000 documents housed in an online repository.

The legacy engineering documentation covered a wide breadth of engineering disciplines (everything from software, RF, mechanics and structures, electrical power and plant) with the major challenge in standardising specifications such that they are manageable by the SKAO systems engineers.

Specifications were generated by project partners who had since completed their works and had dissolved, leaving the documentation mixed and referring to a variety of sub systems.

AEON trusts in Sparx Systems as their go to software provider.

Identifying key specifications across a multitude of detailed documents is challenging for any configuration manager, or systems engineer. By moving to a model based database it allows for standardisation of information, improvements in quality, wide searchability and reporting capabilities. These abilities are critical in engineering mega-projects where significant management is performed by a globally distributed team.

It was necessary to re-format the documentation to refer to discrete products which were interfacing, in addition to the functional exchanges occurring between those two products. By simplifying this information, the specifications are better suited to interpretation by future project partners and commercial contractors.

AEON brought their systems engineering and MBSE expertise into the SKAO and acted as both a resource and a technical partner, advising on appropriate methods of converting and migrating legacy documentation into their required format.

Legacy documentation included both design justifications / rationale in addition to key technical specifications and interface definitions. Typically this information is separated depending on the intended audience. As the SKAO ramps towards construction this data must be as complete, correct and clear as is practically possible to ensure that commercial tenderers are in receipt of documentation at a level of quality that they can easily work with.

Results

AEON successfully managed to interrogate and organise a legacy set of engineering documentation – converting paper interface specifications into a database of over 1000 documents housed in an online repository, this has given the SKAO a fully searchable means of navigating and processing the information for tender, with a full audit trail giving traceability, release status and parent & child relationships (also known as affected downstream documents).

If you require systems engineering support or are looking to find out more information about AEON's capabilities, please get in touch and book a consultation today!

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Enterprise Architecture using Prolaborate

A Case study driven illustration of Enterprise Architecture Capabilities in Prolaborate

The CEO of a leading utility firm intends to leverage an EA tool, to help them with the planning and decision-making required for his digital transformation strategy.

The organization identified three use cases as its primary needs for an EA tool, this article will give an high level overview of how Prolaborate helps them realize the use cases.

Use Case 1 – Smarter Decision Making

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect tool is populated by architects, analysts and other users across the organization. The information represents the length and breadth of the architecture landscape using industry standards as TOGAF or ArchiMate or Zachman framework.

However for maximizing the real value of Architecture practice is possible only when the broader organization) can use the information collaboratively on a regular basis for analysis and decision support that real value is realized.

Use Case 2 –innovation Through Collaboration

Ability to innovate is key for successful digital transformation. To enable innovation the teams must evaluate the current state and emerging technologies.  Prolaborate enables innovation with a structured yet flexible and iterative collaboration and review capability.

Prolaborate enables a state-of-art platform to enable seamless collaboration between the Architecture team, strategy team, innovation team, product team, and infrastructure team.

Use Case 3 – Application Portfolio Management

The CEO was also recommended that there are several duplications of IT assets as a result of several mergers and acquisitions.  To enable a lean, agile organization, the CEO has set his priority to clean up duplicate IT assets.

Prolaborate lets architects create views that will allow the organization to gain the ability to make more conscious investment choices for application landscape to reduce complexity. The Prolaborate views would allow applications with overlapping functionalities to be visible, outdated applications identified, strategic importance assessed, to foster teams to manage applications seamlessly.

Explore the incredible advancements in Enterprise Architecture views in Prolaborate, visualize an organizations IT landscape from Strategy to Implementation. Check out the New and improved capabilities of Prolaborate to perform Value chain analysis, Capability alignment, Application Portfolio Management, Process Optimization to facilitate rapid decisions, quickly.

In this webinar, we'll show you how to:

• Effective Enterprise Architecture using Prolaborate – creating views ranging from Vision and Objectives tracking down to Applications and Servers.
• Learn new utilities to simplify analysis – Relationship Matrix, Spreadsheet interface, Landscape Diagrams.
• Enhanced Charts and Reporting - Heatmaps, Treemaps, Burst charts, Bubble charts etc to efficiently leverage Architecture Data.

For more information and registration please visit https://sparxsystems.com/resources/webinar/sparxservices/prolaborate1909/index.html/index.html

Or Click Register Now. To know more about Prolaborate or request a demo please visit https://prolaborate.sparxsystems.com