Enhancing Agile Development Programs With Model-Based Systems Engineering for Efficient Status Metrics Generation

The current methods used to generate program status metrics to track agile development of complex systems are time consuming with data spread across multiple sources, resulting in inconsistent program progress tracking and lack of continuous improvement. This article proposes the development of a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) program status metrics suite using components and agile management data already developed during system design and implementation. This will allow agile development programs to realize the following benefits: improved efficiency due to automation of frequently executed program processes, and improved accuracy of metrics due to the metrics being generated from the same system data source. This article describes the research methodology, which is a series of steps to identify relevant metrics and modeling elements and determine how these modeling elements can be updated to generate program status metrics directly from an MBSE model. As a feasibility assessment, the methodology is applied to a spacecraft system development program case study. The results show that Cameo parametric diagrams can be used to generate program status metrics at the component level, which roll up to the subsystem level using blocks developed as part of model development and data automatically ingested from finance and agile management tools.