What is System Lifecycle Management (SysLM)?

Readers of this blog will frown at the title at first: Is SysLM a typo? Do we need System Lifecycle Management when we already have Systems Engineering (SE) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)?

I am writing this article for the occasion, as I will be giving a presentation at the Polarion Spring Conference in Heidenheim (and online) on March 1, 2024 entitled: Scaling, accelerating and mastering SysLM with modeling.

Topic of the Polarion spring conference

With the Spring conference is primarily about the requirements management tool Polarionbut also about what is relevant for users beyond Polarion. Specifically, this year's motto is "Polarion and Beyond - Gateway to SysLM". The conferences are organized by a non-profit association, the PLM User Group e.V.. Participation in this two-day event is possible online or in person at very moderate rates (from €25). My lecture will take place on 01.03. at 10:50. To the registration >>

Definition of System Lifecycle Management (SysLM)

At least at the time of writing this article, neither the German nor the English Wikipedia had an entry for SysML. A literature search revealed that the term appeared in German-speaking countries around 10 years ago and was often associated with Industry 4.0 is associated with the

The driving force behind SysLM appears to be Martin Eigner, among others, who wrote a fascinating article on the topic in 2014 and will publish his own book in 2021 entitled System lifecycle management - digitalization of engineering.

The article from 2014 has the title System lifecycle management: The example of sustainable product development using model-based systems engineering methods. As the title suggests, Martin Eigner directly addresses the relationship of SysLM to MBSE, PLM and systems engineering. Here is his definition of SysLM from this article:

System Lifecycle Management (SysLM) is the general information management that extends Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to include an explicit consideration of the early phases of product development, taking into account all disciplines, including services. The concept is based on the direct or indirect integration (using TDM) of different authoring systems along the entire lifecycle of a product system. System lifecycle management solutions are responsible for the product and system models and processes as the technical and administrative backbone. All development phases and all models created during development (along: requirement (A), function (F), logical architecture element (L), physical element (P) and behavior (V)) are included and networked, thus ensuring clear traceability.

Martin Eigner et al, 2014

Problems with PLM

Martin Eigner is confronted with the limits of PLM confronted with. In particular, he criticizes the limits of traceability in PLM, which is "limited to the linking of product requirements and the elements of the bill of materials (...)"

MBSE (and therefore also systems engineering) as "a fundamental component of virtual product development within the SysLM concept". However, he sees MBSE as a "paradigm that supports the development process in the early phases and enables traceability of the requirements of a product system". He thus sees both PLM and MBSE as incomplete and brings them together with SysLM. This manifests itself in an extended V-model.

Sustainability as a driver

Sustainability is a topic that has become increasingly relevant in recent years (for good reason). Martin Eigner sees sustainability as an important driver of SysML. This is because many relevant product requirements (e.g. CO₂-impact) are based on assumptions from all product phases, from raw material procurement, production and operation through to disposal.

Is Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) enough?

Even though Martin Eigner sees the value of both systems engineering and MBSE for these challenges, he does not consider them to be sufficient. He therefore proposes an extended V-model to support multidisciplinary system development. This is shown in Fig. 3 in the linked article to see:

A new addition is V (behavior) in relation to the product system. In particular, Martin Eigner is concerned with behavior during operation that can have a significant impact on the requirements (e.g. with regard to sustainability). The SysLM "Backbone", which is responsible for the integration and management of information, has also been added.

In principle, Martin Eigner considers MBSE (and specifically SysML) to be a solid foundation for SysLM. However, he considers the usual approaches to be too imprecise, as they often only refer to structural elements in the early development phase. As a result, requirements that are heavily dependent on behavior during operation can fall by the wayside. He cites the change to a statutory environmental requirement as an example.

PLM and systems engineering must grow together

Systems Engineering actually covers ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 in itself already covers what the SysLM requires. In particular, the behavior, also during operation, is covered by the Operation Processes (Clause 6.4.12). In MBSE, too, the functional modeling have long played a central role.

I see SysLM more as a call to bring together the areas of development and operations, which are still too separate in practice, and to make the mutual dependencies visible (and use them effectively). From this point of view, SysLM is not really new, but it may be helpful in raising the awareness of decision-makers to take action here.

However, when I look at the companies that are pioneers in this field, I have not yet come across the term SysLM. Here are two examples of how successful companies are bridging the gap between development and operation in terms of behavior:

Conclusion

System Lifecycle Management (SysLM) is not really new, but it is important. It is not so much a concept for technical staff, but for decision-makers. SysLM is intended to give decision-makers a new understanding of the lifecycle not just of products, but of systems. And that is undoubtedly important. It is therefore important for us to be familiar with the term SysLM so that we can clearly assess it should it be mentioned in conversation.

Image source: FreePik