Intercax
IntercaxSanta has just returned from his whirlwind journey, and the workshop erupts in cheers. Elves spill into the command center, their faces glowing with joy and pride as they take in the real-time metrics on the Syndeia-powered dashboard that tracked every detail of the Sleigh Delivery System (SDS).
8.2 billion landings made possible by live digital threads. Figure 1 shows images from Norad’s Santa Tracker.
The Intercax team is doing a retrospective on Day 5 operations with Bernard (Chief- Architect-Elf), Cody Frostbyte (Chief-Software-Elf), Tony Sparkgear (Chief-Hardware-Elf), and Mrs. and Mr. Claus. The meeting is showcasing digital thread capabilities used on Day 5 before Santa’s liftoff.
The Sleigh Delivery System (SDS) Dashboard in Syndeia (Figure 2) shows a distribution of artifacts across 7 data/model repositories that participated in the digital thread relations. The dashboard also shows the incremental and cumulative timeline of digital thread relations.
SDS Digital Thread Graph Queries and Playlists
The SDS team built a library of graph queries in Syndeia to track work across the repositories participating in digital threads. This was incredibly helpful during stakeholder reviews with Mrs. and Mr. Claus, and the elf-teams. Instead of static presentations, reviewers can run a query playlist or add new queries based on stakeholder questions, viewing results in real time based on live digital threads. Figure 3 shows the query dashboard for the SDS with queries and query collections on the LHS and the query results on the RHS in an interactive notebook style interface. Bernard, Tony, and Cody used the SDS domain queries to track digital thread relations from/to GitHub, Jama, Jira, Teamcenter, and TestRail, as shown on the LHS.
SDS Digital Thread Baselines
With rapid, concurrent, and collaborative engineering of the SDS, it was crucial to establish baselines. With multiple data and model repositories, each evolving at a different pace, it was essential to establish baselines for the entire digital thread in addition to the baselines established by each team in their respective model repositories. Bernard, Tony, and Cody established 3 baselines for the SDS, as shown in Figure 4 on the Syndeia Dashboard.
- SDS Baseline 1 was established when SDS requirements in SysML v2 model were used to generate requirements in Jama and connected via digital threads.
- SDS Baseline 2 was established when SDS requirements in SysML v2 model were used to generate project management tasks in Jira to track the development of hardware and software sub-systems.
- SDS Baseline 3 was established when SDS architecture elements (SysML v2) were used to generate and connect with hardware BOM (Teamcenter PLM), logistics BOM (Windchill PLM), software modules (GitHub), and verification tests (TestRail).
Using Syndeia, the elf team was able to compare baselines and track digital thread relations created, updated, and deleted between any two baselines, or between a baseline and current state, as shown in Figure 5.
Sleigh Delivery Data Science using Syndeia API and Jupyter
Cody Frostbye (Chief-Software-Elf) leads a data science and API team that creates automation workflows and data analytics dashboards for North Pole operations. Aurora Datadash and Datanova Snowgleam, two senior data wiz elves on the team, used the Syndeia Cloud REST API with its Python SDK to develop digital thread analytics for the SDS. Syndeia’s comprehensive API for integrations and digital threads made it extremely easy for the SDS team to fetch data from different model repositories and crunch analytics, all using a common interface and API data model. The figures below show snippets from the SDS Jupyter notebook.
Figure 6 shows the distribution of artifacts in the SDS digital thread organized by repository types.
Figure 7 shows the growth of SDS digital thread relations over time, incrementally and cumulatively.
Figure 8 shows a live table with status of SDS Jira issues, color coded by issue status. The table shows issue keys, priority, status, assignee, reporter, and other details.
Figure 9 shows a live table with status of SDS requirements in Jama, color coded by requirement status.
Figure 10 shows a live table with status of SDS tests in TestRail, color coded by status.
Conclusion
Bernard (Chief- Architect-Elf) remarked “This success is a testament to the power of teamwork, innovation, and the magic of digital threads. Syndeia brought all our models and systems together, ensuring no gift was left behind!”. He gestures at the Syndeia’s Digital Thread dashboard, where glowing animations show the interconnected models: navigation, reindeer propulsion, energy systems, and gift sorting.
Cody Frostbyte (Chief-Software-Elf) still wearing his glowing spectacles, raises a mug of hot cocoa, declaring, “That navigation software worked like a charm! Not a single reroute delay!“
Tony Sparkgear (Chief-Hardware-Elf) covered in a light dusting of sleigh polish, adds with a grin, “And that sleigh frame? Barely a scratch after 8.2 billion landings.“
The elves cheer, clinking mugs of cocoa and exchanging high-fives.
After the holiday season, the Intercax team will be working with the North Pole to plan for 2025 operations, which are expected to be inter-planetary.
Summary of Syndeia at North Pole for Santa Mission 2024
- Day 1 – North Pole Calls Intercax for Digital Mission Possible
- Day 2 – Sleigh Delivery System – Architecture and Digital Thread Dashboard
- Day 3 – 3D Sleigh Assembly model coordinated with System Architecture
- Day 4 – SDS Hardware, Software, and Verification Digital Threads go live
- Day 5 – This post (final).
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