Agile Model-Based Systems Engineering Cookbook: Improve system development by applying proven recipes for effective agile systems engineering

Many books cover Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), but this one extends the scope of MBSE to other areas that most MBSE practitioners probably don't touch, such as (the elephant in many rooms) deploying MBSE as part of an Agile development process across the enterprise, or leveraging the system models to drive early verification and validation. More on this later.I found it easy to use the book for practical situations, primarily because it is focused on workflows, or as the author calls them - recipes. Each workflow starts with its purpose and then defines its inputs and outputs, how to do it and - where applicable - an actual example. I liked it because it allowed me to focus right away on the workflows where I needed clarity, where other workflows can wait. And in case you want to go deeper, you can even download the example models. I didn't have a need for this (yet) as the examples are well explained throughout the book, with plenty of screenshots. And as the author has a deep experience with the IBM MBSE tool, and the reviewer has a deep experience with the Dassault MBSE tool, the book is useful regardless of your favorite MBSE tool!I also liked the fact that the book addresses the needs of several types of engineers (or, as often is the case - engineers wearing multiple hats). It covers the application of Agile across the enterprise as an integral part of MBSE, from managing backlogs, to Agile planning, to prioritization, to release planning, product roadmaps and even effective reviews and walk-throughs. These are topics that many systems engineers, especially in industries such as A&D and Automotive, never learned back in Engineering school.I found the chapter on Functional analysis, or what some may call Logical models, very interesting. The workflows in the book lead you to modeling that is an elaboration on the requirements with scenarios, activities, state machines or even user stories, resulting in models that while they are design independent, they are also executable. This allows you to analyze the requirements for their correctness, completeness, safety and security.Other workflows address the more common aspects of Systems Engineering, such as Architectural Design going down to Detailed Design, leveraging patterns, abstraction layers, etc. However, the book does not assume that a System always ends up in software (like in a SysML to UML transition). It addresses the workflows for the creation of a deployment architecture and interdisciplinary interfaces that enable a handoff to downstream engineering in multiple domains, such as electrical, mechanical, etc. in addition to software.Another set of workflows that describe "cool ideas" that only now are starting to be deployed as part of MBSE around leveraging MBSE for early Verification and Validation on one hand, and on the other hand to be used as a reference, and on the other other hand as a test driver for the actual product. The book takes you through all the steps, from identifying the system under test (aka SUT), to the test architecture, test cases, test coverage and even test-driven modeling. These too are subjects that many of us did not learn back at school, and if we did, it was nothing more than just being mentioned in class. The screenshots in the book make all of these concepts very concrete.And if you are a cyclist, you are already ahead of those who aren't, because the example used throughout the book is a Pegasus bike trainer... actually, a very cool example, easy to understand, not too complex, but not trivial either.I highly recommend this book, especially if you are an MBSE practitioner, or managing teams of MBSE practitioners.

I have upped my rating after reading a decent part of the book. It is very well written and informative. I was seriously unhappy that examples are only provided in IBM formats. When you show one of the Cameo Engineers as a reviewer, it does seriously imply access for users of his tools! Even if you are not going to make the examples work in Cameo, I think it would behoove you to at least run them through the Rhapsody->Cameo translator and post those and let the community make them work.

** Reviewing this from my family account; was provided a free copy for review **I have been an MBSE practitioner for 10 years on multiple projects in the space industry for both crewed and uncrewed systems. I've also experienced some combination of agile approaches applied to a systems engineering team that leveraged models.Reading Bruce's book is much like having a beer with another expert and going through a variety of high-quality practices. One of the tip-offs that he knows what he is doing is the discussion on engineering facets, which are his way of accounting for the many engineering disciplines required to realize a modern system. In other cycles spent on the same problem, I've seen these called aspects or traits. When I see that someone has truly grappled with the multidisciplinary nature of modern systems, this raises confidence greatly.Another big part of the book I resonate with is the need to elevate the SE practice beyond the shall statement and take advantage of modeling capability to build a richer specification. Those of us working mission-oriented systems rather than the consumer system given as an example may need to augment the use case methodology, but the book provides more than enough fodder to support this adjustment.Since the book speaks to applying models to engineering practice (it is organized by the typical purpose -> logical architecture -> physical architecture and design -> test progress) I would recommend it for those already at least somewhat conversant with the SysML language. In fact, for those who have recently finished off Steiner-Friedenthal-Moore or Delligatti SysML books, this is an excellent companion for the "now what do we *do* with all this?" question.I certainly intend to keep my copy of this book handy when I'm working up a modeling plan and want to cross-check steps for validation or looking for a possible tweak on approaches that may improve my outcomes.