Hi ,
re: Is there a language to define (state) the generic structure of systems? (E.g., all systems at Cmpy must have a certain structure...)
A dumb question perhaps…
So far I have used the UML / SysML graphic modeling language to model (define ?) ‘actual’ SW object structures / systems.
But what if I want to define (make a statement of definition of) a *generic* system structure?
E.g., I want to define that all systems at my company must comprise one “system” object, where “system” comprises one or more “subsystem” objects. And so on…
Can I do that in UML or SysML? UML or SysML does not seem appropriate, because they immediately label structure elements as a class or as a block.
Maybe there is a different language for that? (Last time I needed to do something like this, I used Visio…)
Maybe I need to use the Entity Relationship Language?
Thanks
Avi
I think you should consider modeling it as a reference architecture. You can think of a reference architecture as a collection of patterns that define a generic structure, which you then specialize and extend for specific systems. I discuss this topic in the architecture chapter of Agile Model-Based Systems Engineering Cookbook 2nd edition, which comes out in ... (checks watch) ... 2 days. I added this over what was in the first edition because it's a question I've gotten a lot lately.