Improving Project-Product Lifecycle Management with Model-Based Design Structure Matrix: A Joint Project Management and Systems Engineering Approach

We investigate potential benefits of employing the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) in the context of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for the purposes of analyzing and improving the design of a product-project ensemble. Focusing on process DSM, we present an algorithm for a bidirectional transformation framework between a product-project system model and its corresponding Model-Based DSM (MDSM). Using Object-Process Methodology (OPM) as the underlying modeling language, we examine and characterize useful and insightful relationships between the system model and its MDSM. An unmanned aerial vehicle case study demonstrates the semantics of and analogy between various types of relationships as they are reflected in both the OPM system model and the MDSM derived from it. We conclude with further research direction on showing how clustering of DSM processes can be reflected back as an improvement of the OPM model. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 16