Expanding Stakeholder Participation in Upfront System Engineering through Storytelling in Virtual Worlds

Azad M. Madni*

Systems Engineering, 2015, vol. 18, issue 1, 16-27

Abstract: Over the last decade, systems engineers have successfully created system modeling languages to communicate with other systems engineers. However, the ability to communicate an evolving system concept and design with stakeholders who are nonengineers remains an elusive goal. In large part, this inability stems from the latter having to understand complex diagrams and equations, and learn new notations employed by systems modeling languages. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that systems today have to frequently adapt to changing operational and regulatory requirements. Thus, to effectively communicate concepts of operation (CONOPS) and evolving system design to those outside the engineering discipline requires a different approach. This paper presents an innovative approach that employs technical storytelling methods to contextualize and map systems engineering (SE) artifacts represented in SysML to virtual worlds within which various storylines can play out. This capability is intended to improve comprehensibility and transparency of CONOPS and system designs when it comes to communicating with the broader stakeholder community. At the heart of this approach is a virtual world enabled by a 3D game engine, and a mapping capability that allows translation of SE artifacts and interdependencies to virtual world entities and interactions. The key idea behind this integrated capability is to allow the broader stakeholder community to collaborate effectively on key decisions during upfront SE. The benefits of this approach are greater stakeholder satisfaction, avoidance of rework, and more responsive system design.

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:syseng:v:18:y:2015:i:1:p:16-27

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