Intercax
IntercaxIt is 7 AM and North Pole is bathing in the first light of dawn reflecting from the snow. The Great Hall, ground zero of operations and logistics, is hustling and bustling with elves gathering for their morning briefing. Sugarplum Mary, the North Star Elf-Chef, is serving hot cocoa with fresh peppermint and gingerbread cookies. Mrs. Claus and Bernard (Chief-Architect-Elf) join the daily standup with Team Intercax. The mission for Day 2 is carved out in the first 15 mins:
- Review of the blazing start and accomplishments of Day 1.
- A digital architecture of the Sleigh Delivery System (SDS) needs to be developed to coordinate detailed hardware, software, and logistics systems.
- SDS requirements developed in SysML v2 on Day 1 need to flow automatically to:
- Spec Evergreen (Chief-Stakeholder-Elf) and team working in Jama Connect requirements management system
- Piney Taskmaster (Chief-Project-Elf) and team coordinating the SDS project in Jira
- Mrs. Claus and Bernard need a single live dashboard to track SDS project tasks and requirement status as Spec Evergreen and Piney Taskmaster’s teams make progress.
- Santa Claus and Merry Evercheck (Chief-Gift-Keeper) must not be disturbed with any questions, as they check the stock of presents now that everyone is on the Nice list for 2025.
Sleigh Delivery System Architecture
Although Tony Sparkgear (Chief-Hardware-Elf) and Codey Frostbyte (Chief-Software-Elf) have been working with Bernard to ensure coordination between hardware, software, and other SDS sub-systems, the lack of a single architecture model for the SDS has resulted in inconsistencies, cost overruns, and delays. Team Intercax used available documents and GPT 4o LLM (OpenAI) to extract the key SDS architectural elements and then created a high-level SysML v2 model of the SDS architecture. A subset of the model is shown in Figure 1.
Note: Click on each image to expand / collapse.
Using the SysML v2 standard REST API, the SDS architecture model was published to a model repository. The Syndeia digital thread platform is connected to that model repository and used the SysML v2 API to fetch and render the SDS sub-systems in a tree view on the Dashboard shown in Figure 2. It took < 20 seconds to push the SysML v2 model to the repository and for Syndeia to fetch and render the tree view.
Within seconds, a giant holographic projection of the Syndeia Digital Thread Explorer rendering the SDS architecture model takes centerstage at the Great Hall. Santa Claus stands at the back of the hall, hands clasped behind his back, observing the activity with a smile. As shown in Figure 3, for the first time Tony Sparkgear, Codey Frostbyte, and Bernard are looking at a single authoritative source-of-truth (ASoT) of the SDS architecture combining hardware, software, reindeer propulsion, and other sub-systems. Their excitement knows no bounds as Intercax team demonstrates the interactive graph that can fetch and render live data, almost like Sparkle-Sphere, the social network used at North Pole.
A major task accomplished and a short break for hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies served by Sugarplum Mary.
Sleigh Delivery System Requirements and Tasks
Spec Evergreen (Chief-Stakeholder-Elf) and team are working in Jama Connect requirements management system as a central repository for all SDS requirements. The initial set of SDS architecture requirements generated in SysML v2 from documents on Day 1 need to flow to Spec Evergreen’s team. With a single drag-and-drop action in Syndeia, SDS requirements are generated in Jama Connect using SysML v2 requirements, as shown in Figure 4 below. Syndeia also generates digital thread relations between SysML v2 requirements and Jama requirements, as viewed in the Digital Thread Explorer in Figure 7.
Piney Taskmaster (Chief-Project-Elf) and team are coordinating the SDS project tasks in Jira. They want to ensure that each SDS requirement corresponds to a task in Jira where the work done to satisfy that requirement can be tracked. Engineering commentary and design decisions on each task are being tracked in Jira. With a single drag-and-drop action in Syndeia, SDS requirements are also generated in Jira from the SysML v2 requirements, as shown in Figure 5 below. Syndeia also generates digital thread relations between SysML v2 requirements and Jira tasks, as viewed in the Digital Thread Explorer in Figure 7.
Digital Thread Dashboard for Sleigh Delivery System
As the double doors swing open with a soft whoosh, Mrs. Claus and Bernard step into the room. A burst of wintry air follows them, carrying the faint scent of peppermint and pine. “Good morning, everyone!” Mrs. Claus says warmly. “I can see our brilliant digital engineers are hard at work! We’ve got 6 days to Santa’s finale. Let’s talk about a live dashboard to track all SDS systems.”
With her permission, the Intercax team launches the Digital Thread Dashboard for the Sleigh Delivery System (SDS). It immediately shows the activity for the last 2 days. SysML v2, Jama, and Jira repositories and their 108 artifacts are now connected with 72 digital thread relations. The timeline graph shows the incremental and cumulative activity for the last 2 days.
Mrs. Claus and Bernard are intrigued that the dashboard has come alive so quickly and reading live digital thread data managed by Syndeia. The Intercax team starts exploring the SDS architecture model in SysML v2 in Syndeia’s Digital Thread Explorer, and magically the linked requirements in Jama and tasks in Jira show up, as shown in Figure 7. Spec Evergreen and Piney Taskmaster are spellbound at the live visualization. The automated flow of information across disciplines was magical but this was another level of sorcery playing out on Syndeia’s Dashboard where both relations within each repository and across repositories are available like a data mesh.
The next scene electrifies the atmosphere. A major ask by decision makers is to track live metrics on dashboards. Syndeia’s Digital Thread Dashboard includes reporting capabilities that can compute and chart metrics tracking project tasks (in Jira) and requirements (in Jama). Intercax team projects live reports, as shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9, on the giant projector screen in the Great Hall. Figure 8 shows 4 pie-charts with a live status of Jira tasks tracking the SDS development with the digital thread. The pie-charts show distribution of Jira tasks by status, type, priority, and assignee.
“Oh my goodness!” exclaims Mrs. Claus, her voice a perfect blend of surprise and admiration. “This is absolutely extraordinary! I’ve always known Syndeia was brilliant, but this… this is something else entirely!”
The Jama requirements report shows 2 pie-charts depicting requirements by status and priority, participating in the SDS digital thread project.
Mrs. Claus beams with pride at the Intercax Team “This is beyond anything I could have imagined. The way you’ve brought magic and technology together to support Santa’s mission… it’s truly remarkable. This dashboard will make such a difference in keeping everything on track and ensuring every child gets their gift on time.” Her voice catches slightly as she adds, “Santa will be so proud when he sees this!”
Mrs. Claus adds, “Don’t forget to take breaks. A clear mind is a sharp mind!”. The team retires for the night to rise fresh for Day 3.
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