White Paper: One Model

One Model, Many Interests, Many Views

Many Viewpoints, Countless Views, One Integrated Solution

Conclusion The foundational purpose of all these views is communication. They each represent a specific, defined subset of the information that makes up a system model. When they are drawn from a single model with guaranteed currency and consistency, they become powerful tools in representing and analyzing the breadth of concerns faced when engineering a system. But their fundamental power lies in their ability to communicate richly and effectively across a diverse community of project teammembers and stakeholders. The systems engineer who draws from this broad collection will have at her fingertips the ability to match the communication needs of her audience with exactly the right vehicle for conveying understanding of the system design. Any limitation of the set comes at the price of communication with all those who might find the excluded representations helpful. Whether this is done in the name of “standardizing” on some subset of representations or through a failure to understand and use the views correctly, communication is impoverished by it. In the same manner, any failure to draw these views directly from a model risks both currency and consistency. In this case, not only is communication impaired, but the design integrity of the system itself is also put at risk. If one is forced to maintain drawings by hand, the only choice is to limit the number of representations used, trading off the cost of maintaining drawings against the benefit of enhanced communication. But linking a rich palette of views with a tool powerful enough to maintain, track, and produce them offers the ability to understand, design, and communicate tailored solutions to solve the problems of a global environment in need of systems engineering.

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