Applying Model-Based Systems Engineering Techniques to Address Challenges in Strategic Planning
Open Access DepositedStrategic planning for large organizations is a challenging venture. Organizations that do it well are rewarded with cohesive corporate strategy artifacts that drive technology, product, and resource roadmaps that align with their goals. This process is key to the overall health of any organization, but as organizations grow and acquire other companies, the complexity of performing this planning process also increases.This complexity growth is in part because the strategic planning processes at large aggregate firms may not be aligned across business units or sufficiently structured to get consistent results. Additionally, the tools that capture the outputs of these processes typically produce visually pleasing presentations, spreadsheets, or Gantt charts that are high-level and subsequently lack actionable data or clear next steps. These artifacts often have a single-purpose use and may lack sufficient detail to identify capability gaps or duplication of efforts within the organization, hindering quantitative decision-making analysis. In short, strategic planning documents are pretty, but short on substance. This is where Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) can help. Using enterprise architecture frameworks like the Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) and model-based design tools like CATIA, it is possible to perform the systems engineering process on the organization itself, creating an organizational system, and build unambiguous, traceable, and quantitative strategic plans that are linked both to organizational goals, and the individual projects that the managerial system must undertake to meet those goals. These models can serve as direct inputs into the systems engineering designs of the projects, continuing the traceability of strategic objectives to model-based verification and validation of the products themselves. There are challenges in implementing a model-based strategic planning approach using MBSE tools, including the steep learning curve associated with the tools themselves and the visual language used to implement the designs. The cost of these tools can also be a barrier to entry for some organizations. However, for an organization that is already implementing MBSE approaches and using MBSE design tools, this challenge is easily overcome, providing consistent, traceable, and high-fidelity model-based strategic plans and roadmaps. Through a comprehensive case study, this praxis demonstrates the feasibility, benefits, and challenges of applying a simplified UAF approach to streamline a complex, interconnected business process, such as strategic planning. Using the methodology described in this paper, it is possible to create a set of traceable, strategic planning artifacts suitable for large enterprise organizations.
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