SysML Partners: Creators of the SysML

Who created the Systems Modeling Language (SysML)?

Question Variant(s): Who created SysML?; Who designed SysML?

The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) was developed by the SysML Partners, an informal group of Systems Engineering and software modeling tool experts led by Cris Kobryn in 2003. Their goal was to create a profile (dialect) of Unified Modeling Language v2.0 (UML 2) suitable for Systems Engineering applications.

Kobryn, who had successfully led the UML v1.x and UML v2.0 language design teams, was asked by David Oliver and Sanford Friedenthal of INCOSE in 2003 to lead their joint effort in response to the Object Management Group's UML for Systems Engineering RFP issued in March 2003. As the SysML Partners' Chair, Kobryn named the language "SysML" (short for "Systems Modeling Language"), designed the original SysML logo, and organized the SysML Language Design team as an open source specification project. Friedenthal, Chair of the OMG Systems Engineering Special Interest Group, held the position of Deputy Chair of the SysML Partners during the project's initial stages.

David Oliver, Co-Chair of the INCOSE Model Driven Design Working Group and INCOSE Fellow, advised the SysML Partners throughout the project.

The SysML Partners released the SysML v0.9 draft specification in January 2005. In August 2005, Friedenthal and some other original SysML Partners departed and formed a rival SysML Submission Team (SST). In November, the SysML Partners published the SysML v1.0 Alpha specification. This version was ultimately adopted by the OMG as OMG SysML v1.0 (Draft) in April 2006.

For further details about the history of the SysML, see the SysML Partners section of the SysML.org web.

SD Times 100 - Modeling 2007
SD Times 100:
Modeling 2007
SysML Partners: The original group of software companies that created a version of UML for systems engineering called SysML, which picked up steam in 2006. SD Times 100 Modeling 2007 Award

Architecture Modeling Language Evolution: UML 2 & SysML



A Brief History of SysML

  • SYSML 1.0 Alpha MILESTONE [Nov. 2005] The SysML Partners submitted their SysML Specification v. 0.9 draft to the OMG for review 10 Jan. 2005. After processing voluminous constructive feedback from the OMG, INCOSE, and the general public, the SysML Partners submitted their SysML Specification v. 1.0 Alpha draft to the OMG for technology adoption on 14 Nov. 2005. The primary technical contributors to the SysML Partners's SysML 1.0 Alpha specification included Chris Sibbald (Telelogic), Thomas Wiegert (Motorola), Brian Willard (Northrop Grumman), and Cris Kobryn (PivotPoint Technology; Chair & Chief Editor). Auxiliary SysML 1.0 Alpha technical contributors, who also co-authored content for competing SysML specifications, included Conrad Bock (NIST), Rick Steiner (Raytheon), Laurent Balmelli (IBM), and Roger Burkhart (John Deere).
  • 1.5 YEARS LATER: OMG SYSML 1.0 MILESTONE [July 2006] After more than one-and-a-half years of contentious OMG technology and political processes, the OMG formally adopted the OMG SysML 1.0 specification in July 2006. Subsequently, the Software Development Times' (SD Times's) Editors bestowed the SysML Partners with its "SD Times 100" award for industry leadership in the “Modeling” category.
  • 15+ YEARS AFTER ADOPTION & COUNTING: No Major Revision Yet, OMG SYSML 2.0 RFP "Work In Progress" Although there have been multiple minor revisions to the OMG SysML 1.x specification since it was adopted in 2006 (the current minor revision is OMG SysML 1.5 [2017], there has been no major revision to OMG SysML since its adoption in 2006. However, the OMG issued an RFP for OMG SysML v. 2.0 in December 2017. Given the glacial progress of the OMG SysML 1.x revision process, it appears unlikely that a OMG SysML 2.0 major revision will be formally adopted and implemented prior to 2021.
SysML Diagram Taxonomy for Agile MBSE™
SysML Diagram Taxonomy for Agile MBSE™

Architecture Modeling Language Evolution: UML 2 & SysML



Industry Recognition

The innovative work of the SysML Partners's Language Design team has been by recognized by both professional societies and industry analysts:

SD Times 100 - Modeling 2007
SD Times 100:
Modeling 2007

SysML Partners: The original group of software companies that created a version of UML for systems engineering called SysML, which picked up steam in 2006. SD Times 100: “Modeling 2007” Award


SysML Language Design Principles

The following fundamental design principles guided the development of the SysML open source specification:

  • Parsimony: SysML is based on a subset of UML that economically satisfies the basic requirements of the systems engineering community as defined in the UML for SE RFP. Additional constructs and diagram types are added to this UML subset only as needed to address derived system engineering requirements discovered during the language specification process. This disciplined application of Occam’s razor results in a more concise, yet more semantically expressive language which is easier to learn, implement and apply.
  • Reuse: SysML strictly reuses UML constructs wherever practical, and when modifications to UML are required, they are done in a manner that strives to minimize changes to the underlying language. Consequently, SysML is intended to be straightforward for UML vendors to implement.
  • Modularity: The principle of strong cohesion and loose coupling is applied to organize normative and non-normative language constructs into stereotype extension and model library packages.
  • Layering: Layering is used to organize the SysML profile in two ways. First, since SysML is defined as strict UML Profile, all SysML packages may be considered an extension layer of the underlying UML metamodel. Second, a SysML language constructs are organized into two levels of compliance, Basic and Advanced, which constitutes an additional layering.
  • Partitioning: Partitioning is used to organize conceptual areas within the same layer. SysML’s package structure, which is explained in the following section, partitions the SysML profile into packages that correspond to the language’s major diagram types. This partitioning is largely isomorphic with UML’s package structure, and is intended to facilitate reuse and implementation.
  • Extensibility: SysML supports the same extension mechanisms furnished by UML (metaclasses, stereotypes, model libraries), so that the language can be further extended for specific systems engineering domains, such as automotive, aerospace, manufacturing and communications.
  • Interoperability: SysML is aligned with the semantics of the ISO AP-233 data interchange standard to support interoperability among engineering tools, and inherits the XMI interchange from UML.

Reference: SysML Specification v. 1.0 Alpha, Section 6.1 Design Principles [14 Nov. 2005].


SysML Diagram Taxonomy for Agile MBSE™
SysML Diagram Taxonomy for Agile MBSE™


SysML Language Design Technical Approach

In consideration of the SysML Language Design Principles outlined above, the following summarizes the technical approach followed by the SysML Parthers' Language Design team in defining SysML as a dialect (profile) of UML 2, rather than as a new language with a unique metamodel:

  • Parsimoniously extend UML constructs only as needed:
    Sparingly add new constructs to UML 2 only as needed to support Systems Engineering requirements as specified by the OMG's UML for Systems Engineering RFP;
  • Reduce UML constructs not needed:
    Explicitly eliminate software-centric UML constructs not needed by SysML so that the SysML dialect will be simpler and less complex than the UML parent language, and therefore easier to learn and apply;
  • Support SysML + UML mixed language usage: Ensure that SysML constructs can be synergistically combined with UML 2 constructs in a model shared by Systems Engineers and Software Engineers, where the former use SysML and the latter use UML. The synergistic combination of SysML and UML should maximize requirements traceability and minimize semantic overlap between the two languages.


SysML Partners

The main corporate sponsors to the SysML Specification v. 1.0 Alpha specification follow:
Other Open Source SysML contributors: The following corporations and government agencies also contributed to the SysML Partners open-source specification project, and are listed as SysML Partners' SysML Specification v. 0.9 copyright holders:


Acknowledgement in Memoriam
The seeds of what eventually grew into the SysML Partners open source specification project began with collaborations between David W. Oliver (1932-2011) and Cris Kobryn starting in 2001. During that time Oliver was an INCOSE Fellow who served as Co-Chair of the INCOSE Model Driven Design Working Group, and Kobryn was consumed with leading the UML2 Partners architecture modeling language design team.

Kobryn was impressed by Oliver's Systems Engineering (SE) expertise and his vision for a UML for Systems Engineering profile (UML dialect) that could support SE applications. Both Oliver and Kobryn realized early that UML software components and Systems Engineering hardware components were more similar than dissimilar. Convinced that the two kinds of components could be unified syntactically and semantically, Kobryn subsequently directed his UML2 Partners specification team to reduce gratuitous software-centric aspects of the UML 2.0 specification draft so that it could serve as a syntactic and semantic foundation for a future UML for Systems Engineering profile.

Without Oliver's vision and passion, which inspired this tedious but essential UML 2.0 foundation re-work, it is unlikely that the SysML open source specification project could have been completed in a timely manner.

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