Boeing: Querying Model-based Systems Definition Data

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is a rapidly growing methodology that enables the integration of multiple abstractions of a system: from customer and regulatory requirements, through functional and logical breakdowns all the way to the Physical product (RFLP). It allows Boeing to perform validation of complex systems and find potential defects long before any physical product is built. As with anything in life, there is a price to be paid. In order for the models to be useful, they need to be detailed and a detailed model of all requirements and all the necessary product breakdowns requires a tremendous amount of data. This, in turn, causes traditional databases’ performance to degrade drastically. Boeing uses MarkLogic’s Semantics capability to automatically extract graph data from SysML models in their native format. This graph data can then be easily queried using SPARQL. The presentation shows examples of data being queried and explains the OpenMBEE environment within which MarkLogic lives.