Modeling Digital Threads as Executable Workflows Using SysMLv2

Model-Based Systems Engineering leverages inter-connected models to improve Systems Engineering practice. Enabling technologies for MBSE often leave the details of engineering processes implicit. Digital threads are being codified to link authoritative sources of information across a digital modeling environment. When considered as workflows, digital threads make explicit the details of MBSE processes. As systems in their own right, digital threads could benefit from the same processes and analyses used in MBSE. In this paper, we refine (1) the notion of digital threads as workflows and (2) the environment necessary to execute them. Digital threads are built by composing atomic capabilities that perform specific authoring, verification, analysis, and reporting operations and represent the automatable part of the digital engineering workflow. We derive requirements for modeling digital threads describing engineering process workflows built via composition of atomic capabilities, as well as for modeling the execution environment. We illustrate how to model digital threads and atomic capabilities using SysMLv2 action definitions. Finally we describe our interpreter for executing Sys<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$M$</tex> Lv2-based digital threads for AADL models. Combined, these contributions (1) allow systems engineer to build digital threads within their modeling environment, reducing the barrier towards defining tailored digital threads, and (2) move towards enabling modeling the process of modeling.