Software Engineering Institute

Digital Engineering (DE) has the potential to improve project outcomes (e.g., reduction of acquisition risk for cost and schedule) for cyber-physical systems (CPS) by enabling defect detection to “shift left.” This shift is enabled by developing new methods (e.g., model-based analysis) that discover important defects and/or issues earlier in the product lifecycle. The benefits of DE have been clearly demonstrated in other domains (e.g., nuclear power system design). However, recent studies highlight the challenges of both implementing DE and measuring the DE process for CPSs. There is no guarantee that applying DE methods early in the development lifecycle for CPSs and software will result in the improved likelihood of attaining stakeholders’ goals.