Cradle Modules – Overview

Cradle Modules

Cradle is an integrated requirements management and systems engineering environment with the features, flexibility and scalability for the full lifecycle of today’s complex agile and phase-based projects.

Overview of Cradle Modules
Overview of Cradle Modules

From concept to creation, from Cradle to grave.

Cradle is unique. It provides the tools and features to create and manage all your data, at all stages in your systems development, and at all levels. By managing all the data in one place, only Cradle can provide traceability across the entire lifecycle in one tool. Without Cradle, you have to assemble many products from many vendors, and you will still not have the full traceability that Cradle can provide.

What does Cradle Provide?

Cradle provides full requirements management, analysis, design, architecture and performance modelling, test, risk and interface management and metrics in one product. You can use all of these facilities, or combine Cradle with tools from other vendors. If you have such tools then Cradle will link to them, extending their scope from a part of the system lifecycle to all of it.

Cradle is multi-user, multi-project, distributed, open and extensible. It links to your existing desktop tools to create a tailored environment to suit your process.

Cradle provides built-in issue, risk and interface management. It supports comparative trade studies and analyses. Cradle provides a built-in  configuration management and control system with baselines, version control, change histories and formal change control. It bidirectionally links a WBS and progress reporting to your project planning tool. With these capabilities,  Cradle removes the need for you to try to connect risk, CM or change tracking tools to your systems engineering. Cradle provides everything you need, integrated and ready to use.

Access Control and Authentication

Cradle has customisable, hierarchical, access control facilities and integrates with your authentication, access control and security mechanisms including firewalls, LDAP and SSL. Cradle provides user-definable views of project data, tailored to each stakeholder group. With customisable navigation, review and entry tools and tailored web UIs, Cradle shows each user the data that they want to see, in the way that they want to see it.

Cradle Databases

Projects use user-defined, arbitrarily extensible databases, linked to external files, URL resources and data in external repositories. Each database is configuration controlled, with change histories, baselines, versions and variants, managed by configurable change requests and change tasks.

Cradle Access

Cradle supports off-line and remote access from geographically separate groups. Internet and VPN access is provided, with full support for project and company firewalls and DMZs.

It connects dispersed teams together, with tailorable discussions, alerts and e-mail.

Cradle Modules Overview

Cradle is modular, using floating licences to share resources dynamically across the project. The Cradle modules overview is:

  • Cradle-PDM provides a project infrastructure, from access control and user accounts, through a user-defined schema, phase hierarchy, team hierarchy and access controls to configuration management and open external interfaces.
  • Cradle-REQ provides requirements management from external source documents to baselined, engineered requirements linked to the rest of the system lifecycle. It allows you to define and manage user stories, validations, test cases, and any other types of information for all of your process.
  • Cradle-MET provides user-definable metrics to gather and analyse statistics from project data.
  • Cradle-SYS is a flexible analysis and design modelling environment. It allows any number of models to be built and grouped into model hierarchies in distinct analysis and design domains. Models are fully cross referenced to requirements and all other information. SysML is also supported.
  • Cradle-DASH provides user-definable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) calculated from live project data in user-defined dashboards shown as tables or dials.
  • Cradle-PERF provides performance assessment, budget apportionment and data aggregation facilities for design models at any level in a system development.
  • Cradle-SWE provides code generation and reverse engineering for C, Ada and Pascal, to synchronise design and source code.
  • Cradle-DOC provides user-defined project document generation and a formal document register of project deliverables.
  • Cradle-WEBP provides web publishing of project data to static, hyperlinked, websites for external stakeholders.
  • Cradle-WEBA allows read-only and read-write access to project data through multiple, user-defined, web UIs that are tailored to each stakeholder group. It also provides external access to Cradle items through URLs.
  • Cradle-RISK provides ability to open and edit items of the mapped item type for risks. Also allows you to create and open risk profile graphs.
  • Cradle-TEST provides ability to execute test plans and create/edit test information, e.g. test cases, test results and test runs.

Feature Summary

Feature Summary - Overview
Feature Summary – Overview

Please contact 3SL for further information about adding any of the Cradle modules to your existing system.

June Newsletter is Available!

We are pleased to announce that our June newsletter 2016 is available here:

https://www.threesl.com/pages/news/webletter-June16/index.php

which includes the announcement of Cradle-7.1.1 that integrates SysML into the systems lifecycle, invites you to visit us on stand B4 at INCOSE 2016, and discusses other topics of interest to all Cradle users.

We hope that you find it interesting and helpful!

Cradle-7.1.1 Released

We are pleased to announce that we have released Cradle-7.1.1, an update to the Cradle-7.1 release that added SysML into the range of MBSE notations available in Cradle’s integrated modelling tools.

The Cradle-7.1.1 release changes the way that equipments and ports are drawn in Physical Architecture Diagrams, allowing public ports to be drawn more neatly and more densely inside equipment symbols. It also adds a new ability to run queries on items that are indirectly linked or not linked to other types of iterms, and a variety of other small updates.

Security Codes for Cradle-7.1 will also work with Cradle-7.1.1.

If you have a single-user Cradle-7.1 system, such as Cradle-SE Pro, then you can also upgrade to Cradle-7.1.1.

To get the new release, please go to:

www.threesl.com

and login and download the software from the Resources section of our website.

If you install Cradle-7.1.1 anywhere, please install it everywhere!

We hope that you will like this new release of Cradle!

Cradle-7.1 – SysML Videos

Our 3SL colleagues in the US have posted a series of videos demonstrating the SysML support in Cradle-7.1. This is a single demonstration, split into a series of parts:

You can access these demonstration videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdnZeLWcaufRjC0MBX1iuuQ

Please look at these videos and see how SysML models can be built in Cradle and how these models can be integrated into other information, including requirements, tests, test cases, defects, issues and risks.

At 3SL we believe that MBSE is the ideal approach (whichever notations you choose to use) but only if it is integrated into all of the other information in your project.

MBSE in isolation is just a bunch of pretty pictures!

Using SysML in a MBSE Process in the Systems Lifecycle

3SL attended the SEC 2016 conference in Washington at the end of last month. We presented a tutorial on how SysML can be used in a MBSE process that is integrated into the rest of the systems lifecycle, including initial needs and requirements capture and following with links to test and delivery.

That presentation can be downloaded from our website here:

https://www.threesl.com/downloads/download.php?version=v7.1&section=presentations&filename=Simple_MBSE_Process_Using_SysML.pdf

and as a compressed link, here:

http://ow.ly/4mTZOq

We hope that you find this presentation helpful!

April Newsletter is Available

We are pleased to announce that our April newsletter 2016 is available here:

https://www.threesl.com/pages/news/webletter-April16/index.php

which announces the release of Cradle-7.1 that integrates SysML into the systems lifecycle!

If you have an active maintenance agreement with 3SL, you are welcome to upgrade to Cradle-7.1 at any time, but please remember that you will need a new Security Code from 3SL to use Cradle-7.1!

Cradle-7.1 is Available!

We are pleased to announce the release of Cradle-7.1 that introduces SysML into Cradle’s existing modelling capabilities and allows SysML to be integrated with the needs, goals, objectives, user stories, sprints, SBS, PBS, test cases, verifications and validations (and so on…) in the full systems engineering lifecycle.

This is more than mere MBSE. This is lifecycle-enabled MBSE!

Only from 3SL and only from Cradle!

For more details, visit www.threesl.com and talk to us at salesdetails@threesl.com or me at: mark.walker@threesl.com or contact me through LinkedIn!

If you want to upgrade to Cradle-7.1, you will need a new Security Code as Security Codes for previous versions (such as 7.0 and 6.8.x) will not work with this release. Also note that if you upgrade Cradle anywhere (such as a client or your server) then you must upgrade all Cradle installations.

Once again, we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who gave up their time in the Beta test programme. Your hard work is very much appreciated!

3SL Presenting at SEDC 2016

We are pleased to announce that we will be presenting a paper at the forthcoming SEDC 2016 conference, either:

– “Executives Will Want to use MBSE”, or
– “Learn a Simple MBSE Process by Connecting the Dots Using SysML Tutorial”

Details of the SEDC conference can be found here:

http://www.sedcconference.org/

We look forward to meeting you there!

SysML is On the Way!

We are pleased to advise that we will soon be releasing our SysML extension to Cradle as part of the Cradle-7.1 release in the next couple of months.

This will be unique in the world of SysML, and we encourage you to investigate what we can offer.

SysML is the UML ‘dialect’ for systems engineering. It has many capabilities. It is, fundamentally, just another modelling notation through which MBSE (model based systems engineering) can be conducted. In that sense, it is nothing new. There have been many other notations in the past, all of which permitted MBSE.

What is different now is that by integrating the latest SysML notation into Cradle’s unique ability to support the entire lifecycle in a single tool, with a single database, we can offer MBSE using the latest notation with complete traceability from requirements and into test management, defect tracking, release, maintenance and ultimate system disposal.

This is unique! We are very excited about it!

We hope that you will join us in the new opportunities that Cradle-7.1 will provide!

We will announce details of the Beta programme very soon, and hope that you can be a part of it!