SysML Archives – MBSE Solutions

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE): A Better Way to Engineer Systems

October 28, 2025James HummellModel Based Systems Engineering, traceabilityModel Based Systems Engineering, SysML, Systems Engineering

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE): A Better Way to Engineer Systems

In traditional systems engineering, the source of truth lives in documents and spreadsheets. Changes ripple manually, traceability is fragile, and diagrams often drift from reality. Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) makes the model the system’s living source of truth. The shared model (often in SysML System Modeling Language) expresses structure, behavior, requirements, and interfaces, which enables consistent views, rigorous analysis, automation, and reliable traceability across the lifecycle.

Functional Architecture Using SysML

June 11, 2018James HummellModel Based Systems Engineering, SysMLFunctional Allocation, Functional Architecture, Functional Decomposition, SysML

As a systems engineer, how do you perform functional allocation or functional decomposition? How do you identify [these functions] and [this system] and then specify how they work together? In this blog, I will explain three different approaches. I will evaluate the pluses and the minuses of each method and finally propose a new approach.

How to Model Your Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) With SysML

October 10, 2016James HummellFMEA, Model Based Systems Engineering, Requirement, SysML, traceabilityFailure Mode and Effects Analysis, FMEA, Model Based Systems Engineering, SysML

I have noticed an increasing trend where more and more companies and government agencies are required by contract to perform Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA). For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated that FMEAs must be done for any product that is put out on the market. In general, every company that is producing any product should have a design and a FMEA. That same design should trace to requirements, define any hazards that may exist, and should be able to demonstrate the failure modes. Similarly, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are following suit in requiring FMEAs in the production of parts and in the making of devices. For this reason, medical, aerospace, and automotive companies alike, all understand the need to generate FMEA tables and forms in order to prove acceptability in the marketplace. Traditionally FMEAs are captured in a spreadsheet format, either by tools like Windchill Quality Solutions, ReliaSoft’s Xfmea, or simply captured in Excel. Because my focus is modeling systems designs, I am in the process of developing a modeling technique which can enable systems engineers to easily access, create, trace, model the information they need. …

About MBSE Solutions

October 23, 2010James Hummellconfiguration management, Do178b, process engineering development, safety critical systems, Simulation, software development life cycle, SysML, tool agnostic, UML, UPDM/UAF

James Hummell is an expert trainer for SysML, UML, and UPDM/UAF, currently working as chief consultant for MBSE Solutions, a tool gnostic (as opposed to tool agnostic) training and consulting company. He is an expert in software and systems engineering, specializing in modeling and simulation analysis using UML and SysML. Mr. Hummell has extensive experience in embedded…