Systems Engineering – Controlling complexity to develop competitiveness

THE CHALLENGE OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING & MBSE

Mastering complexity to develop competitiveness

The overall performance of a company depends on its ability to create value for its customers, and in other words, on the performance of each activity, but also on the performance of the interactions that exist between all activities.

The constraints that companies face generate complexity in the control of their value chain. This complexity is characterised by the growing weight of regulations, changes in customer usage, technological breakthroughs, instability of the economic system and competition. In addition, the geographical scope and organisation of the company are also a source of complexity.

The first minutes of a system are fundamental

The majority of the cost commitment takes place during the concept development phase. This phase accounts for 8% of the overall project and incurs 70% of the costs.

Systems engineering provides companies with solutions for the control of their value chain …


Recognised know-how

CS GROUP, due to its historical activity of carrying out projects in project management, has developed a varied competence in systems engineering based on the norms and standards applicable in systems engineering, notably ISO 15288 and 15289.

Beyond its own needs, CS GROUP also carries out expertise missions in the fields of requirements engineering, systems architecture, systems modelling and digital continuity between modelling activities, as well as test and verification engineering.

CS GROUP is also involved in the French Systems Engineering Association (AFIS), more specifically on the following topics : IS management, Agility and MBSE, the MBSE, configuration management, system engineering for VSEs, SMEs and as such, participated in the implementation and coordination of the PISOC project for the deployment of System Engineering within VSEs.

In order to fully understand the engineering challenges of infrastructure projects (Cigéo, Grand-Paris Express, etc.), CS GROUP has been participating since 2019 in the National MINnD project (Modelling INteroperable INformation for Sustainable Infrastructure) (http://www.minnd.fr/). This project aims to develop BIM (Building Information Modelling) for infrastructures.

Solutions

SBoCS (System Building of CS GROUP)

CS GROUP has developed the SBoCS (System Building of CS GROUP) methodological environment, which is more oriented towards the specification, design, realisation and maintenance of large systems or product lines. SBoCS is the tool-based methodology dedicated to complex projects.

This environment has been applied in the fields of Civil Aviation and Defence. In particular, it has been used for many years for projects carried out by CS GROUP, whose mission is to provide support for all the local control centres of air force bases (CLA), the secure ground-to-air radiocommunication network (SRSA), as well as the radiocommunications of military coordination and control centres (CMCC). These projects required major architectural work in order to optimise the organisation that the air force has to deploy in order to use these systems. They have also required significant rationalisation in terms of requirements engineering.

2SBoCS (Software based System Building of CS GROUP)

CS GROUP has capitalised on good practices in systems engineering to apply them to smaller projects. This environment, a methodology called 2SBoCS (Software based System Building of CS GROUP) is based on the implementation of architecture frameworks (Unified Profile for DoDAF and MoDAF, TOGAF). It has been used for recent information systems projects for clients such as SNCF, Société du Grand Paris, Andra.

IVVQ Methodology (Integration, Verification, Validation, Qualification)

CS GROUP has also developed an integration, verification, validation and qualification methodology that has resulted in a specific offer for the testing of spatial ground systems. This methodology has been implemented for the integration, verification and validation activities of the satellite control centres of the space missions CERES, CSO (Optical Ground Component), SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Topography Mission), EGNOS V3.

Partnerships

Requirements engineering

CS GROUP is in contact with the main editors of requirements engineering tools (IBM, Dassault Systèmes, Jama Software, Persistent, One-Light Studio, The Research Company, the open source community Reqchecker) and conducts evaluations on its own background using evaluation questionnaires designed by its systems engineering team.

System modeling