1. Object-Process Methodology (OPM): Language Principles and Vivid OPM: Model-Driven System Visualization at the The Enterprise Systems Modeling Laboratory
Professor Dov Dori
Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion
Presentation to VISIONAIR Project
Nov. 15, 2011

2. The Enterprise Systems Modeling Laboratory was founded in 2009
Designed especially to function as a technology-enabled active learning and research site
Used for research in conceptual modeling and visualizations

3. The Educational Concept
Students work in teams of variable sizes according to the needs and class size.
Each team can, for example, play the role of an enterprise with four main departments, e.g., marketing, logistics, manufacturing, and support.
Teamwork is central in this activity.
It emulates real industrial and commercial environments, where no one is a solo performer and no significant achievement can be the result of the actions of any single individual.

4. The Physical Infrastructure
The physical infrastructure is inspired by the Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) project at MIT for undergraduate physics teaching
This infrastructure achieves the goals that are derived from the educational concept.
It constitutes a departure from the traditional frontal teaching mode and lecture hall to the studio approach.
The lab is a 7 by 7 meters room with five clover- shaped desks with three computers each around the professor’s station and four viewing screens, one on each wall.
A server connects the 17 computers of the lab so study and research can be done collaboratively.
A High-Definition Video-Conferencing facility enables to hold joint sessions with universities and institutions worldwide.

5. From Idea to Reality

6. A powerful server with 17 networked “Chip-PC” workstations
Four large screen LCD wall-mounted displays
Removable portable and programmable touch-screen control panel
IP-Based Video conferencing capabilities
Ability to record and transmit long sessions for offline viewing, distance learning and analysis

7. Learning at the ESM Lab: 2011-12 Winter Courses
Mini-Project in Industrial Engineering
Semester II students model and design a real life, complex  system.
Part of our VISIONAIR Project:
1. CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY PROJECT:
Conceptual model of a low-cost £1000 scanner for use in primary care
2. UNIVERSITY OF SALFOR PROJECT:
Framework for Innovation and Research at MediaCityUK (FIRM)
Methodologies in Information Systems Development
Study in depth principles of the two leading model-based systems engineering languages:
Object-Process Methodology and
SysML – System Modeling Language.
Learn about and take part in ISO standardization and model- based standards authoring
Participate in standardizing OPM as an ISO Standard

8. Simulated Animation Projects
NASA Smackdown Project
The SISO Simulation Smackdown is an effort to promote better awareness and understanding of both the importance and the complexity of modern modeling and simulation through hands-on mentoring and participation with modeling and simulation practitioners.
TALOS autonomous robot project
Develop and field test the innovative concept of a mobile, modular, scalable, autonomous and adaptive system for protecting European borders.
Our contribution to both projects is VIVID OPM – A framework for model-driven simulated animation
Tanas, M.; Holubowicz, W.; Adamczyk, A.; Taberski, G.; "The TALOS project. EU wide robotic border guard system," Methods and Models in Automation and Robotics (MMAR), th International Conference on , vol., no., pp , Aug URL:

9. International Standards and Knowledge Generation Projects
ISO Standardization of OPM
We advocate a model-based systems engineering approach for creating “industry-strength” technical documents
Technical document authoring is the function of the system – the organization – that delivers the technical document.
Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK)
The SEBoK is a guide to the body of knowledge, providing references to detailed sources for additional information.
The SEBoK is primarily domain independent, with implementation examples providing the domain-specific context.
The SEBoK is focused on engineered systems: products, services, systems of systems (SoS), and enterprises

10. Software Development Projects
Web OPCAT Project
A Web- and cloud-based IDE and implement the formal operational semantics definitions of OPM.
Our vision is to have a universal repository of standard OPM model snippets in various domains.
They are freely available in the cloud as “Lego” pieces from which anyone can easily build, test, and run OPM models using a friendly cloud environment for their assembly.
Models should be populated with instances and be simulated on the fly.

11. What is OPM - Object-Process Methodology?
A minimum description length language and a comprehensive systems engineering paradigm for
Modeling
Communicating
Documenting
Engineering
Lifecycle support
of complex, multi-disciplinary systems
Based on simultaneous representation of structure (via stateful objects) and behavior (via processes)
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12. Leading MBSE Methodologies (INCOSE Task Force, Estefan, 2008 p. 43)
IBM Telelogic Harmony-SE
INCOSE Object-Oriented Systems Engineering Method (OOSEM)
IBM Rational Unified Process for Systems Engineering (RUP SE) for Model-Driven Systems Development (MDSD)
Vitech Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) Methodology
JPL State Analysis (SA)
Object-Process Methodology (OPM)
OPM is in the process of becoming ISO standard and the basis for Model-Based ISO Standards Authoring

13. The two OPM things: Objects and Processes
Objects exist.
Processes happen to objects.
They transform objects:
Processes create objects
Processes consume objects
Processes change objects

14. OPM Entities: Things and States
Object: A thing that exists or might exist physically or informatically.
Objects are stateful:
Objects can have states
At each point in time a stateful object is
at one of its states - static, or
in transition between two states – undergoing change
Process: A thing that transforms an object.
Transforming an object is:
creating it,
consuming it, or
changing its state.
Object
State 1
State 2
Processing

15. Compact Ontology: A Minimum Length OPM alphabet
OPM unifies the system’s structure and behavior throughout the analysis and design of the system within one frame of reference using a small alphabet:
Two types of things:
(1) stateful objects
(2) processes
Two families of links:
(1) structural links: connect objects with objects
(2) procedural links: connect processes with objects
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16. What is in an OPM Model? OPD:
The OPM model consists of a set of
Object-Process Diagrams (OPD set) and a corresponding
Object-Process Language (OPL text) – a subset of English
OPD:
OPL: Purifying changes Copper from raw to pure.

17. OPM Elements: Entities and Links
Entity types:
Object: A thing that exists for some time
State: A situation at which an object can be
Process: A thing that transforms an object
Link types:
Structural link: A link denoting a persistent relation between objects
Procedural link: A link between a process and the object it transforms or a state of that object

18. OPD Example: The TALOS Project

19. OPM Feature I: Three-Aspect Unification
Function (utility aspect: why is the system designed, what value is it expected to provide?),
Structure (static aspect: what is the system made of), and
Behavior (dynamic aspect: how the system changes over time)
Are expressed in OPM bi-modally in a single model.
The model view multiplicity problem is avoided – no mental integration load.

20. OPM Feature II: Bi-modal expression
An OPM model is expressed by two modalities:
Intuitive yet formal graphics via a set of interrelated Object-Process Diagrams (OPDs), and
An equivalent subset of natural language text (currently English), called Object-Process Language (OPL) that is derived automatically from the user input graphics

21. Resources: OPM book
Dov Dori, Object-Process Methodology - A Holistic Systems Paradigm, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 2002
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22. Resources: OPM-related Publications
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