9.4.2 System and Context Modeling; Visualizations of Where, When, and How1
Gerrit Müller · INCOSE International Symposium · 2010
Abstract Modeling of systems and their context is done to support communication with stakeholders, to facilitate reasoning about system requirements and design, to support decision making, and in general to create and maintain understanding, insight, and overview. One of the challenges in modeling is to find appropriate representations that are understandable for relevant stakeholders and that contain sufficient information. In this paper, we discuss how to visualize space, time and process flow of systems, both internal as well as in their context. We argue that visualizations must connect to the stakeholders' world. We observe that architects tend to create abstract diagrams, alienating their stakeholders by abstraction, the use of jargon, and the presence of lots of (irrelevant) details. We will illustrate the visualization techniques with some models made as part of the Darwin project. The Darwin project researches evolvability of systems and architectures, using Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanners at Philips Healthcare as case.