Rational Rhapsody Tip #50 - Using Rhapsody automation to simply usage, increase consistency and ease user acceptance (Advanced)

I used to think it was sufficient to teach pure SysML/UML and tricks using Rhapsody. However, in my 50th tips and tricks video I thought I'd highlight one of the areas where I've seen the most productive MBSE value come over the last few years, particularly when deploying Rhapsody to a wider community of users. This video shows an example of tailoring using a profile and supporting plug-in. The code base itself is part of my SysML Helper (v3) profile development which has moved from being just focused on executable MBSE, to supporting a range of different methods. The key thing about automation is that experts can define how to set-up the tool. I can then utilize automation and deep IBM Rational Rhapsody product knowledge, so that end-users can focus on the engineering problems they're trying to solve rather than the tool. My latest technique is to make use of new term packages a lot more, as illustrated in this example, that shows a profile that focuses on supporting the hierarchical decomposition of a system into function blocks.

The video also shows some techniques such as creating custom diagrams like a functional block BDD, and substituting functional context diagram for a use case diagram. It is SysML. However, it's SysML tailored for a specific user community. The benefits of this kind of automation are:

1. Speeds up modeling (so they can focus on engineering rather than model set-up).
2. Improves consistency (which makes life easier for users), and
3. Reduces training needs (as it can be more tailored to end-user/specific areas of interest)