What is Maple MBSE? To clear up any confusion, let’s talk about what it isn’t. It is not a standalone Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) modeling tool, not used to build an MBSE model. It connects to an existing model from Magic Draw or Rhapsody, even to connect to the cloud server capabilities they’re associated with. The actual purpose of it is to democratize the access and extension of MBSE by non-experts. System engineers will build up the MBSE model but others will need to do analysis. Discipline-specific engineers need to add in or verify back that “Yes what’s being asked in the MBSE model in terms of requirements can actually be accomplished.”

Maple MBSE connects into an existing MBSE model in which the interface is Excel. Through that Excel interface, you can develop custom views on that model that are specific to a user so they don’t get overexposed to all the complexity of your own MBSE model. It allows them to contribute to the model by creating new requirements, functions, separate subsystems, etc. This occurs in such a way that it democratizes the use and expansion of MBSE within an organization.

Often, the big challenge with MBSE isn’t getting experts to do their job and develop the initial architecture, the flow down from RFLP, Requirements, Functions, Logical architectures, and Physical architectures. It’s getting everybody else on board, getting other engineers and analysts to engage, connect, and use that model for core development and take part ownership of it. This is a very interesting tool to extend the democratization effort out in Excel that will connect to the models that experts build.