During the exploration phase of adoption, the adoption team should have become familiar with the fundamentals of Model-Based Design e.g. model architecture, data dictionaries, testing, formal methods, report generation and so on. In that this blog is focused on groups adopting MBD it is a fair assumption that the current state is “introductory” (1) however the following sections can be used to identify where additional support is needed.(2)

Architecture

The following tasks should be understood…

• Encapsulation of models:  How to define each model in a format with defined interfaces and data.
• Integration of models: How to integrate individual models into a larger integration model
• Integration of existing code artifacts: How to integrate artifacts from the models into existing code artifacts and/or integrate code artifacts into the models

Data management

The following tasks should be understood…

• Creation of data artifacts for use in the model: How to create data that the model can reference
• Management of data artifacts: How to store and reference data artifacts in a scalable way.
• Harmonizing data between model and existing code artifacts: How to reuse data between models and existing code artifacts

Testing

The following tasks should be understood…

• Creation of test harnesses: How to create a test harness that will exercise the model in a “stand alone” method.
• Creation of data: How to create the data used by the test harness both for input and output evaluation.
• Creation of test evaluation methods: Creation of methods for evaluating the outputs from tests

Supporting tools

The following tasks should be understood…

• Basic use of version control: The users should understand which files need to be placed under version control.

Final thoughts

The obvious question arises “how do I move from “introductory” to “ready?”  There are three primary methods

1. Training: There are multiple training courses (industry) out there allowing you to learn about Model-Based Design (university).
2. Papers: Both academic and industry papers exist to help you learn about MBD.
3. Outside help:  Outside help can come from either hiring people with MBD experience or hiring outside consultants.
4. All of the above…

Footnotes

(1) Having an introductory level of knowledge of Model-Based Design methodologies is not the same thing as an introductory level of knowledge of software development.  Most groups that adopt MBD have a strong software development background.
(2) Most of the “Why is my state so [XXX]” I understand.  However, I don’t know why Pennsilvina and Connecticut got “haunted” as their “Why.”