Polarion spring conference: Interesting developments at Siemens

I had the pleasure of attending the Polarion Spring Conference last week. Most readers probably know that Polarion is a web-based tool for requirements management.

The focus of the event was Systems Lifecycle Management, which is why it was about much more than just Polarion. In particular, there are some interesting developments at Siemens, the manufacturer of Polarion.

Polarion: Tool for requirements management

Polarion is one of the four "big" tools for web-based requirements management (the other three are DOORS Next, Jama Connect and Codebeamer). Of course, there are many others. I call these "big" because they dominate the market and have features that are required for complex, safety-critical developments.

Polarion was acquired by Siemens in 2015, continuing the trend of incorporating independent tools into a group's portfolio. Following this trend, last year PTC Codebeamer purchased. DOORS Next was developed by IBM from the very beginning, which means that only Jama Software is still independent of the above-mentioned companies.

Companies that use a requirements management tool usually need a number of other tools that work together in product development. In this respect, it is understandable that tool manufacturers want to offer customers a complete solution via their portfolio. Siemens is no exception and has the appropriate range of tools on offer.

Keynotes at the Polarion Spring Conference

The Spring conference is now a well-established event organized by the PLM Benutzergruppe e.V. in . The association has many working groups, one of which focuses on Polarion. This working group has been organizing this well-attended spring conference for many years now.

Even though almost all of the visitors are using Polarion, last week was about much more. Because requirements management is only a small part of the Systems Lifecycle Management. This was also demonstrated by the two high-caliber keynotes at the event:

Chantal Sinnwell from Siemens reported on her company's vision of solving customers' challenges. A rethink needs to take place in companies. Appropriate tools are only a small part of the solution; business processes, methods, skills and data management approaches are just as important.

Christian Muggeo, known through the MBSE Podcast, highlighted the importance of modeling in his keynote speech. Because only with models can we use development data efficiently throughout the life cycle.

Teamcenter as the backbone of Siemens

The origins of Siemens Teamcenter date back to the late 1980s, although Siemens did not officially introduce the name Teamcenter until the early 2000s. Teamcenter is often referred to as PLM system perceived. In theory, it should cover the entire system life cycle. In practice, however, it is primarily used for bill of materials management, i.e. the management of mechanical product data.

Siemens has been trying to change this for a while and is systematically building Teamcenter as a platform that provides modules for certain activities (e.g. V&V) as well as integrations, e.g. for CAD.

It gets confusing because Siemens also provides a component for requirements management with Teamcenter Requirements. Polarion, on the other hand, can be integrated into Teamcenter, but is positioned by Siemens as a tool for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). This is all quite confusing, as Teamcenter Requirements and Polarion ultimately have a lot in common.

Siemens and IBM work together

Siemens announced a closer collaboration with IBM back in April. In particular, Siemens lacks a component for system modeling. IBM fills this gap with Rhapsody. With the Systems Engineering Day 2023 Siemens and IBM presented the concept in detail and also explained that Siemens would act as a reseller for Rhapsody.

At the Polarion spring conference, there was accordingly another presentation by Siemens (from Alexandre Soisson), who spoke in particular about the plans for Systems Lifecycle Management and SysML. He announced that traceability between Rhapsody and Polarion is in the works and will hopefully be available soon.

Alexandre also emphasized, as indicated above, that Teamcenter is the backbone for System Lifecycle Management should be. However, he sees the focus here more on V&V than on system modeling.

The platform strategies of the portfolio companies

It will be exciting to see how quickly and how well Siemens will manage to realize this vision. In particular, I find it difficult to assess whether the basis of Teamcenter has been modernized in the meantime or is still based on the original Teamcenter.

IBM's platform (Jazz) is much younger (since 2008), but IBM struggled with it in the early days. But DOORS Next, for example, which is based on Jazz, is now running smoothly. IBM has also shown staying power with OSLC and I see more and more interest in OSLC on the market. Nevertheless, IBM, like Siemens, still has another old tool for requirements management in its portfolio, the "classic" DOORS.

Also PTC has a similar approach to Siemens: PTC also comes from the PLM world. Just two years ago, PTC purchased a modern requirements management tool (Codebeamer) and is now in the process of integrating it. PTC is also currently still using the legacy tool Integrity for requirements management.

In this context, it is interesting to note that Dassault, with the Purchase of No Magic has sent a clear signal regarding system modeling and MBSE. At the same time, Dassault lacks a reasonable tool for requirements management (a possible buyer for Jama Software...?).

Conclusion

If the Polarion Spring Conference had only been about Polarion, then the benefits for me would have been limited. But with its focus on systems lifecycle management, the event added a great deal of value to the current discourse.

In addition, the meeting of old acquaintances, the exchange with new people and a successful setting provided by the Voith Group in Heidenheim was provided. All in all, a very successful event.