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By expanding their existing toolset, Frazer-Nash enriched the decomposition of stakeholder requirements through systems modelling techniques whilst avoiding the manual transfers between different requirements and modelling tools. 

In recent years, the continued growth of systems engineering across a wide range of industries, has led to a  wealth of software tooling options becoming available to support organisations wishing to adopt a systems  engineering approach to developing and delivering their products and services.  Whilst this is a welcome driver for improvements in capability and performance for the software on offer, this can pose a challenge for organisations such as Frazer-Nash Consultancy.  

As an organisation providing systems engineering services across  a wide breadth of industries and customers, Frazer-Nash Consultancy invests in a wide set of Requirements Management  and modelling software tools such as IBM® DOORS® Next, Dimensions RM, Jama Connect, Cameo and  Enterprise Architect, to support the needs of their clients with their  systems engineering requirements. 

The ‘tool-to-use’ decision is often driven or constrained by the  needs of their clients, leading to cost challenges around training  staff on a wide range of the tools, as well as the difficulty in demonstrating traceability from requirements to systems models across tools from different vendors. 

In the face of these challenges, the team at Frazer-Nash  determined there was a case for redefining their business model to adopt Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) as their ‘default way of working’, through a standard set of tools. The business driver for this change, was ultimately to reduce  the time and cost of delivering their core services, with the caveats of not impacting the overall quality of the  services delivered whilst maintaining the flexibility to exchange  data across vendor solutions. 

As a long-standing business partner to Frazer-Nash Consultancy, the Optimise Engineering technical team was tasked with  supporting the Frazer-Nash team through this transition.  

Frazer-Nash already had the IBM® Engineering Lifecycle  Management DOORS® Next tool, as part of their current  tool-scape, as well as Rhapsody® and IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Optimization Publishing as separate  standalone applications. These tools were seen as the foundations for a more standardised approach to  adopting MBSE as the applications form a single platform solution.

By expanding their existing tool-scape to include IBM® Rhapsody® - Model Manager, the Frazer-Nash team are  now able to link their existing DOORS® Next data to their Rhapsody® Models, allowing the team to enrich the decomposition of initial stakeholder requirements and system requirements through systems modelling  techniques. Rather than exporting requirement data into another format, then importing the requirement data  into the modelling tool, live traceability links are established between data in the requirements management  domain and model elements in the Rhapsody® domain.  Adding the IBM® Lifecycle Optimization - Document  Builder capability provided a method for DOORS® Next users to generate customised documentation and  reports directly from the DOORS® Next interface, without the need for deploying additional local instances or  purchasing more licenses for the Publishing application.  

Over a series of remote consultancy and training sessions, key stakeholders within the Frazer-Nash team received Rhapsody® training  and enablement, allowing them to not only become a key component in  the development of the Frazer-Nash MBSE process, but also gaining  valuable insight and hands-on expertise in using IBM® Rhapsody® to  streamline the MBSE process. This enabled the team to develop tool  specific process documentation, to help others within the organisation to  use the IBM® solution to deliver MBSE. The same stakeholders received  enablement on using the IBM® Publishing Engine to develop their own templates to create documentation and develop Frazer-Nash Consultancy branded document templates.  

The Optimise Technical Team Helping to Drive Progression  

The Frazer-Nash team continually strive to embrace new technologies and more efficient ways of working.  Having a clear vision to get the right collaborators and stakeholders involved ensures this ongoing project  progresses at speed and delivers all the intended benefits.  We were very happy to support the team via our systems engineering and consultancy services, the deployment and extension of IBM® ELM tool licensing and our robust training and enablement offerings. In systems engineering terms, Frazer-Nash have effectively ‘left-shifted’ their business model by investing in  staff and tools, focusing on the value, rather than the cost of change. 

Organisational and Engineering Value was delivered through the following key deliverables:  

• Enhanced tool capability, delivering a one platform integrated solution for MBSE effort;  

• Enhanced team capability through team MBSE enablement; 

• An MBSE business process, developed to meet the needs of the business, that current and     future team members can rely on to deliver consistent levels of service and value to existing and new customers;  

• Reduced manual effort around delivering key project documentation through the deployment of     standard automated document templates. 

Managing Consultant, Mark Best, leading the project at Frazer-Nash Consultancy commented: 

“As a consultancy we are tasked to work with many tool vendors depending on our clients’ needs, we wanted  a number of base tool suites we could use in order to create a foundation for our expertise to reside with, so when I was challenged to modernise our IBM® tool chain, I reached out to Optimise staff for two reasons: one, I have worked with them for over 15 years in my previous role at IBM® and secondly, they deliver  an effective service delivery in terms of tool and process support at a price that is fair, compared to other  suppliers. We added both a modelling and publishing capability to enable a better choice of tools that we can  use with our clients. Optimise deliver their services with a friendly approach and always remain flexible as tool introductory can sometimes be drawn out when trying to introduce change to an organisation.”