Modeling Guidelines Interest Group (MGIGroup)

Bring Stateflow® Under Control with Modeling Guidelines

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, May 31, 2022

In the MGIGroup meeting, we focused on Stateflow^®. Modeling with Stateflow^® looks deceptively simple at first. Initially, state machines and decision graphs seems to be easy to implement but on closer inspection things start to get tricky. Which pitfalls should we watch out for? Which difficulties have you already encountered in Stateflow^®? Which modeling guidelines help? In short, we discussed and debated which strategies to follow in order to ensure that Stateflow charts can be used in safety-critical systems. In addition, we clarified possible dos and don'ts.

Buses in Simulink – A Blessing or a Curse?

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager) & Ferry Bachmann (MES, Product Owner)
Date: Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Over the past few years, the MGIGroup has looked at a variety of different modeling topics. In addition to analyzing the lifespan and the remaining useful life of models, we also took a closer look at various modeling constructs. Buses are powerful and efficient modeling constructs in Simulink. In our next MGIGroup meeting, we want to discuss when and how it makes sense to use buses in Simulink models. Advantages in model development and structuring may be offset by disadvantages in implementation and runtime. Which guidelines exist? Which guidelines do you hope to see in the future? Which aspects have to be considered regarding the generated code? Which best practices do you follow already and where do problems occur in practice?

The MGIGroup members joined the conversation and discussed the use of buses in Simulink and worked on best practices together.

Modeling Guidelines: From Classic to Contemporary

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2021

The MGIGroup returned to its central topic: modeling guidelines. A vast amount of guidelines to comply with exist. What are the most important guidelines for functional safety? Which standards are relevant at the moment? Guidelines are helpful to prepare the models in an optimal way so that testing is as efficient as possible. For example, the goal to avoid division by zero in Simulink and Stateflow models will be detected during modeling instead of finding it during the testing phase. There are different best practices for different modeling styles. Which strategies do you follow?

The MGIGroup members joined the conversation and discussed with us the latest topics on modeling guidelines.

Challenges in Refactoring Software Models

Speaker: Ferry Bachmann (MES, Product Owner)
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Refactoring is the non-functional revision of a model to make it as easy to read and maintain as possible. Refactoring is a central step in the work process when it comes to modern software development. But, in reality, do you have enough time to keep your models readable and maintainable? Is readability and maintainability even a problem for you at work? How can refactoring be implemented in the development process and applied efficiently? What challenges do they create?

In this MGIGroup meeting, we would like to share our experiences regarding challenges in refactoring software models. The focus was on knowledge sharing.

A wide range of insights, knowledge, and best practices have been shared over the years thanks to the countless discussions we have had with the dedicated experts in the group. Dialogue is the key factor of the MGIGroup. Therefore, on the fifth anniversary of the MGIGroup, we focused on the highlights and lowlights of software modeling and remote working. We also dared to glimpse into the future. What additional challenges will new requirements and work arrangements bring?

Quality Assurance Due to Modeling Guidelines: How Do You Persuade Your Team?

Speaker: Melina Simichanidou (MES, Software Engineer) & Philipp Arnold (MES, Product Application Engineer)
Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Within the scope of quality assurance (QA), tools and standards support you in effectively implementing QA in the processes and phases of your project. But how do you motivate your team to do the same when it comes to modeling guidelines? What aspects do you use to convince developers in terms of content?

With the knowledge that the maturity of a process can vary greatly, integrating modeling guidelines into the process as well as technical safeguarding are important points to consider. The MGIGroup already addressed the issue of efficient development last year. We concluded that emerging challenges can only be met by a high degree of automation. It is imperative that the issue of checking your software models in a continuous integration environment for compliance with quality boundaries should also be addressed.

In this MGIGroup meeting, we would like to share our experiences regarding quality assurance due to modeling guidelines. The focus was on knowledge sharing.

SOTIF: More than a supplement to ISO 26262?

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2020

In the last MGIGroup meeting, we discussed the current status of SOTIF (Safety of the Intended Functionality) in terms of norms and standards. The first SOTIF draft was published as a supplement to the ISO 26262 standard in January 2019. Who has already had a look at ISO/PAS 21448:2019? Which changes may arise? We wanted to focus on the possible effects SOTIF will have on implemented processes. Do you already have plans to modify your current processes or do you think it would it be better to wait for ISO/CD 21448?
In short, the MGIGroup members debated how to deal with SOTIF as its own standard.

Support Processes for Code Generation in Model-based Development

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2019

MATLAB^® / Simulink^® with Embedded Coder^® or TargetLink^® is widely used in the automotive industry. These code generators are an integral part of the toolchain. While the automatization of this step allows developers to focus on modeling functionality, there are several aspects that need to be considered with respect to the generated code in the model. What challenges do MGIGroup members face in terms of code generation? What optimization possibilities with regards to runtime, memory, code generation time etc. exist in the model? How can modeling guidelines or other processes support this?
In this MGIGroup meeting, we would like to share our experiences regarding code generation. The focus was on knowledge sharing.

Analysis of the Lifecycle of Models

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Changes to requirements also apply to older models. A ready-made model often serves as the basis for the next product development. For this reason, this MGIGroup Meeting is dedicated to the analysis of the lifecycle of models. In particular, we will take a closer look at the maintainability and reusability of models.

Our guiding questions are: How often is the architecture of a model adapted? What are the influencing factors for this and how can we develop models timely and with foresight?

Continuous Integration in Model Based Design

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2019

As software projects increase in terms of size and complexity, automatic software checks are vital. In order to meet high quality standards and due to increasing development speed, efficiency in the development process is a must. These challenges can only be met by a high degree of automation.

Do you test your software models for compliance with quality boundaries in a continuous integration environment? If so, what environment do you use for this? What are the biggest obstacles and challenges for automated testing?

Migration Strategy for the Revision of ISO 26262: 2018 in the Software Development Process

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2019

During the MGIGroup meeting, we talked about the long-awaited revision of ISO 26262, which was released in December 2018.
What is this update about?
What has changed?
What do the new recommendations for handling concurrency mean for development projects?
In this MGIGroup meeting, we discussed how the revision process should be handled. In particular, the MGIGroup members considered whether they should migrate as soon as possible or whether the changes that need to be made are marginal.

Recap MES User Conference2018 - Next Level: Get Agile!

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Co-speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, December 4, 2018

During the meeting, we were revisit topics discussed at the MES User Conference 2018 "NEXT LEVEL: GET AGILE!".

We presented slides outlining the results of the Un:conference session. Following this, we took an in-depth look at the topics that were most relevant to our participants and were discussed in small groups. How can (function/product) responsibility be distributed within a (Scrum) team? Is there "a perfect way" to becoming agile?

Agile Methods in Safety-critical Software Development

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Tuesday, September 4, 2018

The Agile Manifesto has revolutionized software development, and agile software development has become the new standard. But how do agility and safety standard requirements fit together? What are the challenges that arise? Which agile methods can be used? How does the Definition of Done help?

Modeling Guidelines for Testability

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Testing models is one of the most important steps in model-based development - and one of the most challenging. How can models be optimally prepared so that testing is as efficient as possible? What are the biggest hurdles that testers and developers have to overcome?

Complexity Measurement and Reduction

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Co-speaker: Ferry Bachmann (MES, Product Owner)
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Handling complexity is a central challenge in the model-based development of large systems. What does this look like in practice? Why and how can complexity be measured? What approaches are there to reduce complexity?

What Is Best Practice for Achieving ISO 26262 Compliance?

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Co-speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The number of guidelines that must be fulfilled is large. As part of this, there are various best practice methods that can be used for different styles of modeling. We would like to discuss with you topics like actions in Stateflow or global dataflow.
Alongside this, we want to see how 'State of the Art' is defined in order to achieve a high level of model quality and establish ISO 26262 compliance.

Upcoming Impact of the Second Edition of the ISO 26262

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2017

In the last few years, the ISO 26262-6 has established itself as the standard for model-based software development in the automotive industry. Since its release in 2011, technologies have continued to develop and new best practices have been established. The ISO DIS update expected in 2018 takes this into consideration. What exactly is it all about? Which requirements arise when it comes to using multi-core processors? We will provide a preview of the new standard on software development.

Good Interfaces in Large Models

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Taking a look on the quality of model architectures, the size of interfaces should be considered. How is this aspect handled in practice? Is this relevant for your models? Are there specific guidelines for model architecture to limit the number of signals of the interfaces?

Latest ISO 26262 Update – Focusing Concurrency

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2016

The main aspects of ISO 26262 have been retained during this update with regard to modeling guidelines, however the topic 'Representation of concurrency aspects' has been added. Since this will be a safety-critical aspect in the future, it is already worth considering established best practices. What are your experiences with concurrent models? How did you build these so far? What are the systematic changes?

Scheduling Techniques - Multitasking in the Model

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016

From our experience in safeguarding models, we encounter the question how tasks can be scheduled in the model to be important. We would like to discuss with you which scheduling aspects can be handled in the model. In particular, the definition of tasks and their properties as well as when and how tasks will be triggered shall be discussed.

Selection Criteria for Modeling Guidelines

Speaker: Sophia Kohle (MES, Product Manager)
Date: Thursday, February 18, 2016

This meeting focused on the selection criteria for modeling guidelines at the start of a new software project. As an introduction to the discussion we presented and discussed a core guideline set. Which are the most important guidelines? What is your deployment strategy?

Modeling Guidelines Interest Group (MGIGroup)

Speaker: Dr. Heiko Dörr (MES, CEO)
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The MGIGroup was founded on October 9, 2015 and and saw, already in its first online meeting, around 30 dedicated experts in model-based software development taking part. In this initial meeting, the members (e.g. AVL, Daimler, FEV, General Motors, Mathworks, Schaeffler, Samsung SDI, WABCO) introduced themselves, gave a short explanation for joining the group, and discussed the objectives and topics of the MGIGroup. The participants were particularly interested in how the group is using guidelines and their deployment strategy, which are the most important guidelines, and thus learn how guidelines help in increasing efficiency.