Don't Panic! SysML v2 Book Review
Even though SysML v2 is not yet an official standard, there is already at least one book on it: The authors Tim Weilkiens and Christian Muggeo, known from the MBSE podcast, have recently published the book "Don't Panic! - The Absolute Beginners Guide to SysML v2". Here is the review of the book.
Is the book worth reading? I will answer that below.
Target group: To SysML v2 and/or MBSE Interested people with a basic knowledge of UML or SysML who want to be able to have a competent say on SysML v2. The term "Absolute Beginners Guide" should not be taken literally, as the book description makes clear. Readers should have at least some basic knowledge of UML or SysML.
Rating: ★★★★★ Due to its compact size (68 pages), the book cannot go into great depth. Nevertheless, it covers all the important topics and conveys the possibilities, limitations and differences of SysML v2, with clearly understandable examples. Readers who have been following SysML v2 for some time will not find much that is new. However, this is not the aim of the book.
Acquire: The book is published via the INCOSE UK-Shop for £ 20 as a paperback or for £ 15 as a DRM-free PDF.
Use cases covered by the book
In the introduction, the authors, like good systems engineers, describe the use cases for which the book was designed. These are:
- Getting started with SysML v2;
- Understanding the language architecture;
- Understand the differences between v1 and v2;
- Identify the migration path from v1 to v2;
- Understand the advantages of SysML v2;
- As a user, to force the tool manufacturers to implement SysML v2. correctly.
The book gives readers the information they need to put pressure on tool vendors to implement SysML v2 in a formally correct way.
Book structure
The book is structured as follows:
Chapter 1: Motivation for SysML v2: On one page, the authors summarize what has already been explained several times here on the blog.
Chapter 2: History of SysML: A brief summary of how modeling languages have evolved over the decades, starting with UML.
Chapter 3: Architecture of the SysML v2 language: In contrast to SysML v2, v2 is no longer based on UML, which is probably the most important change in the architecture. In this chapter, the authors describe the different meta-levels of the language.
Chapter 4: SysML v2 Features: This chapter gets down to the nitty-gritty: definition and use, specializations, structural modeling, behavioral modeling, use cases and other cases, requirements modeling, domain-specific modeling, views and viewpoints, variability and SysML model libraries.
Chapter 4 is the longest. It deals with the nitty-gritty and the ten most important SysML v2 features are described with examples.
Chapter 5: API and other services: The SysML v2 API is another innovation that will enable many new use cases. The authors discuss theoretical aspects such as the distinction between platform-independent and platform-specific models (PSI, PSM) and show a few concrete examples using REST APIs via Swagger interfaces.
Chapter 6: Migration from v1 to v2: A lot of interest in SysML v2 will certainly come from users of v1, which is why the topic of migration is important for many readers. This chapter looks at the various migration strategies.
Chapter 7: Summary: The authors compare the tour through SysML v2 in 50 pages to a trip through Europe in 5 days: it gives readers a rough feel for the language and helps them decide where they want to go further in depth on the next "trip".
The book also has an appendix on reference implementations (see below).
Info boxes for decision-makers
The various info boxes in the book are extremely useful. These help to emphasize important concepts once again. The info boxes help to separate oneself from the hype surrounding SysML v2 and to penetrate the important aspects of SysML v2. There are the following categories:
Pitfall: Common traps and mistakes that can easily be made with SysML v2.
Myth: Frequent misunderstandings, errors and downright lies.
Key Concept: This is a really important concept that we need to know and understand in order to use SysML v2 successfully.
Scary: A daunting, unsettling or frightening aspect of SysML v2.
Benefit: An aspect of SysML v2 that will enrich our systems engineering activities.
Appendix A: Experimenting with SysML v2
To keep the book as practical as possible, the authors refer to the two reference implementations in Appendix A. The Eclipse-based open source implementation I have already presented in this blog. There is also a JupyterLab versionwhich runs in the browser.
Don't Panic series
This is neither the only nor the first book in the Don't Panic series. It was created by Jon Holt many years ago to make the concepts of systems engineering accessible. The name is of course based on the classic novel by Douglas Adams. As he is Technical Director of INCOSE UK, books in the series are also published there. In this SysML v2, Jon appears as an "Easter Egg":
Conclusion
The book hits the nerve of the times and is very important at the moment, as there is a lot of hype and misunderstanding about SysML v2 at the moment. The book is short enough to read in an afternoon. It is too technically detailed for decision makers in many places. However, decision-makers can simply skim the info boxes and delve deeper into the text if necessary.
For readers who have already heard a SysML v2 lecture by Tim Weilkiens, Stephan Roth, Christian Muggeo or someone else, the book does not offer much new. Such readers should consider buying the book for their superiors.
Photo by Winston Chen on Unsplash
