Object-Oriented SE Method

Mission & Objectives

About The Method

Originally developed by systems engineers from Lockheed Martin and the Systems and Software Consortium, the Object-Oriented Systems Engineering Method (OOSEM) is systems-level development method that combines object-oriented concepts with traditional systems engineering practices. Two major goals of the method are to facilitate integration of systems engineering with object-oriented (OO) software engineering, and to apply OO modeling in a way that benefits the systems engineering process.

OOSEM was originally based on the Object Management Group (OMG) Unified Modeling Language (UML); it now uses the OMG Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to represent systems analysis and design information. It contains activities for needs and requirements analysis, logical and allocated architecture design, and includes guidance for trade studies, validation and verification.

Some good sources of information about OOSEM:

A good overview of OOSEM is available in _A Practical Guide to SysML_ Third Edition, by Sanford Friedenthal, Alan Moore and Rick Steiner. This book is mainly about SysML, but Chapter 17 applies OOSEM to a Residential Security System case study. The book and companion materials are available from Elsevier. Companion materials include PowerPoint figures from each chapter and models for examples, in Magic Draw and HTML formats. The book is also available from Amazon.
Section 9.4 of the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, Fourth Edition is another good overview of the method.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has developed training material for using SysML and OOSEM.
Mary Tolbert has developed a model of the OOSEM process using the Eclipse Process Framework. To view the model, download OOSEM Process Baseline (1/2020), extract the contents of the zip file, open the oosem_process_baseline folder, and then open the index.html file with Internet Explorer.

About The Working Group

Mission: The mission of the OOSEM WG is to keep the method up to date and to develop and maintain documentation and training material. Group members are practitioners of Systems Engineering and related disciplines.

Objectives include

Maintaining awareness of new technologies that may benefit the method
Developing and maintaining method documentation and training;

Collaborating with other INCOSE Working Groups, such as Critical Infrastructure Protection and Recovery (CIPR), and with groups outside INCOSE.

Meetings: Virtual meetings are usually on the second Saturday of each month.

Leadership

WG Lead Chair:
Howard Lykins
howard.lykins@verizon.net

Convene meetings monthly or as required. Be the primary point of contact for all WG activities, communications and actions. This role includes relationships both internal and external to INCOSE. Responsibilities include:

Annual budget and other financial activities.
Operating process development and approval.

Working Group Products

In addition to OOSEM, the Working Group contributes to other products, and provides workshops for the Systems Engineering community. Recently the OOSEM Working Group:

Provided OOSEM inputs to INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook v4.
Sponsored 2015, 2016 and 2017 educational workshops on Lean Startup and Agile methods for Initial MBSE Project Planning (jointly with INCOSE Chesapeake, SOMD, Chicagoland and WMA Chapters as well as IEEE).
Contributed to the CIPR WG Micro-Grid Reference Model MBSE project.

Planned Working Sessions at the Next Events

There will be a demonstration of the Eclipse Process Framework model of the OOSEM process at IW2020.