10 things to know ...

10 things to know about Rhapsody:

  1. The 4 Editions of the Rhapsody family all support OMG SysML at no extra cost.
  2. The premium Editions of Rhapsody (Designer and Developer) also include licensing for Design Manager. See 8.1 announcement.
  3. Rhapsody has properties and properties help deployment. If you don't like the way Rhapsody does something then it can probably be changed (using a property).
  4. In my opinion the Rhapsody Gateway is a mature/proven way to synchronize with Rational DOORS and is licensed in the Rhapsody Tools and Utilities Add On package but you will not get its true value without being shown.
  5. The Gateway can be used to update DOORS requirements based on updates in Rhapsody. 
  6. I'd recommend always drawing the BDD before the IBD. Drag the parts on. Take notice of diagram frames.
  7. Rhapsody is extensible with Java plug-ins. You can customize and extend with ease (if you know how).
  8. Rhapsody's low-cost Editions (Architect for Systems Engineers and Architect for Software Engineers) are one of the lowest priced of all IBM's tools. The prices are available on the IBM page.
  9. Rhapsody tables/matrices/queries/user-defined browser filters are very powerful for System Engineering usage.
  10. In my opinion if you don't use Rhapsody properties/custom profiles to tailor the user experience, you're wasting time and money. The purpose of training is to teach you this.

10 Things to know about SysML:

  1. SysML is a graphical language. It's a set of visual notations. It's not a method.
  2. SysML shares most of notation with UML 2.x making it great for sharing information across a software-intensive systems development team. 
  3. SysML is not a tool. There are many UML tools that support SysML notation. Remember though, a modeling tool does more than just draw diagrams. It needs to integrate with your other tools and processes. It needs to work for more than one user.
  4. It is possible to use SysML with a formally defined method. 
  5. It is perfectly possible to use SysML without a formally defined method.
  6. SysML is a set of notations. You don't need to use them all.
  7. At some point in using SysML you will ask this question: should I use activity models or sequence/interaction models to specify the behavior? This is a very fundamental question and will shape the method you adopt. You may you both. Choose with understanding if you really want to get the value.
  8. UML 2.x extended UML 1 to add better support for hierarchical decomposition of structure and behavior and component-based design. The result is that it incorporated structured-design techniques to a notation that was object-orientated in nature. The result is a hybrid. Both are useful for Systems Engineering.
  9. SysML is standardized by the Object Management Group (OMG). It is under development as an ISO standard.
  10. SysML adds meat around requirement and allocation concepts to the UML. The resulting table/matrices functionality becomes very useful indeed, even for UML modeling (e.g. text in use cases, actions/operations traced to requirements, etc).