Don't Mix the Tenses: Managing the Present and the Future in an MBSE Context

Abstract When implementing MBSE in complex systems development, it is never about only ONE model or only ONE language. Instead, there is a need to be able to handle different aspects over time, i.e., to separate what it shall become at the end (the future) from what it is for each specific product configuration (the present). This is especially evident in large‐scale projects with complex products having very long life cycles. Therefore, there is a need for models capturing the long‐time perspective, i.e., defining the desired future state of a system, together with models representing the current state of design, and models describing in detail how it will be in the near future. In the paper, a structured way to separate those tenses is presented in a context of the complex systems development of a fighter aircraft, allowing for representing multiple realisation models for a system element. Enablers for achieving this separation over tenses is discussed, where extensive configuration management is one key aspect.