Systems Engineering Model (SEm®)

The AECO sector is mostly project driven. So business requirements vary in every project depending on the type of contract, asset, client, stakeholder, consortium, or supply chain. As a result, the demand for IT flexibility has led to using (model-driven) technology platforms. Those systems can serve business requirements at will because they are adaptable to non-programmers. However, flexibility can also pose a risk for enterprises if applications vary per project (e.g., lower user efficiency, model author dependency, unsustainable interfacing investments).

Although users usually request flexibility in IT functionality (I want to work in a specific way). The interest of the enterprise is usually opposite scalability (where can we do the same?). So how can these opposing interests be met? A best-of-both-worlds solution that secures both flexibility and scalability is to implement a standardized blueprint* for shaping applications that are:

1. Technology platform agnostic

A standardized blueprint applicable to various application platforms makes cross-application data consistent. Scalability is free in technology platform choice, while data consistency stays secured.

2. Functionally extendable

A standardized blueprint that is extendable in use makes datasets coherent (i.e., logical cohesion of dataset). Flexibility is free to extend functionalities in technology platforms while data coherency stays secured.

Enterprise interest** adds another requirement: an application’s extension must comply with the same ‘consistency and coherency rules’ to be scalable and flexible.

An analogy: Let’s say the English language offers ´rules,´ i.e., grammar & vocabulary, to extend a written book: add an extra chapter. That extra chapter has to comply with the same grammar & vocabulary rules as the initial book. That way, anyone can write an additional chapter in a book, and will be understood by anyone who knows the English language. And the book will result in a consistent and coherent whole. This principle is similar to creating, extending, and interfacing systems.

Semmtech offers the Systems Engineering model (SEm®) with ‘consistency and coherency rules’ to deliver IT solutions that comply with business requirements in a flexible and scalable way

• Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
• Building Information Model (BIM)
• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
• Configuration Management Databases (CMDB)
• Model-Based Asset Management (MBAM)
  

*: Blueprint: Information model that conveys what data is about and states the needs for processing that data within an application.

**: SEm® is the backbone of our value propositions for enterprises: