A Road-Map for Transferring Software Engineering methods for Model-Based Early V&V of Behaviour to Systems Engineering

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for early validation and verification (V&V) of system behaviour within Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to cope with increasing system complexity. It argues that software engineering methods and artefacts can inspire MBSE V&V, especially for modelling behaviour, and grounds this claim with a Systematic Literature Review that identifies six challenge areas: Models, Organisational, Methods, Scoping, Tools, and Community. It then presents a six-thread research road-map—Independent data API, DevOps, Method catalogue, Empirical Systems Engineering, AI integration, and Training resources—intended to transfer proven SWE practices to MBSE, improve data interoperability, enable continuous V&V, and support empirical evaluation and certification. The roadmap envisions standardized data APIs, automated pipelines, and openly accessible training materials to accelerate adoption and prove benefits in industry. Together, these contributions aim to mature early V&V in MBSE, with practical impact on risk reduction, decision speed, and alignment with standards and certification processes.

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the growing need for system behaviour to be validated and verified (V&V'ed) early in model-based systems engineering. Several aspects push companies towards integration of techniques, methods, and processes that promote specific and general V&V activities earlier to support more effective decision-making. As a result, there are incentives to introduce new technologies to remain competitive with the recently drastic changes in system complexity and heterogeneity. Performing V&V early on in development is a means of reducing risk for later error detection while moving key activities earlier in a process. We present a summary of the literature on early V&V and position existing challenges regarding potential solutions and future investigations. In particular, we reason that the software engineering community can act as a source for inspiration as many emerging technologies in the software domain are showing promise in the wider systems domain, and there already exist well formed methods for early V&V of software behaviour in the software modelling community. We conclude the paper with a road-map for future research and development for both researchers and practitioners to further develop the concepts discussed in the paper.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Challenge areas for early behaviour V&V.
• Figure 2: Different streams of research activities by researchers and practitioners to achieve early V&V in MBSyE.