Model-based Enterprise Architecture for Institutional Management Digital Twins

NASA manages $40B in facility assets with an inventory of more than 5,000 facilities. Over 83% of this infrastructure is beyond its design life, and the agency faces a deferred maintenance backlog of $2.77B. An effective method to address this challenge and achieve digital transformation is through Enterprise Architecture (EA) and the use of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods. During Phase I, guided by stakeholders from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and headquarters, Global Technology Connection and Georgia Techs Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory successfully demonstrated the feasibility and value of using the Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) to create a model of NASA enterprise. This interlinks NASAs missions, projects, facilities, capabilities, timelines and more using their connected attributes. Doing so enabled rapid, accurate, and more data-driven decision-making to guide and prioritize investments around NASAs aging infrastructure. We identified pertinent use cases and demonstrated how our approach can lead to informed decisions for Institutional Construction of Facilities (I-CoF) projects. The objective of Phase II is to mature and implement the model-based enterprise architecture for institutional management digital twins (EA-MBSE) at GSFC leveraging UAF to enable decision-making with increased insight and velocity for I-CoF projects. Specifically, we will address three use cases which we have identified as the most pressing and the most beneficial for NASA stakeholders. Facilities prioritization for master planning of greenbelt facilities Institutional CoF budget re-allocation and justification Multi-facility energy conservation measure (ECM) projects prioritization For easy extraction and dissemination of these insights, we will generate user specific views with streamlined interactivity. A technology plan addressing technical operational challenges will also be developed. NASA manages $40B in facility assets with an inventory of more than 5,000 facilities; however, with over 83% of this infrastructure beyond its design life, the Agency faces a deferred maintenance backlog of $2.77B. An effective method to organize and address this challenge via digital transformation is through Enterprise Architecture (EA) and the use of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). EA provides the ability to map organizational objectives and requirements to business, IT functions, and digital technologies.   Guided and encouraged by stakeholders from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Headquarters, Global Technology Connection, Inc. and the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) at Georgia Tech successfully demonstrated, in Phase I, the feasibility and value of using the unified architecture framework (UAF) to create a digital representation of elements of NASA's enterprise, one that enables data-driven decision-making with increased insight and velocity to guide and prioritize investments related to NASA's aging infrastructure and facilities. The overall objective of Phase II is to create a model-based enterprise architecture for institutional management digital twins (EA-MBSE) at GSFC, leveraging UAF to enable decision-making with increased insight & velocity concerning Institutional Construction of Facilities projects (including ECM projects). In Phase I, we primarily have developed a value chain to make informed decisions regarding Institutional Construction of Facilities projects. We used UAF to make an EA-MBSE for GSFC, linked that to the relevant digital thread, & generated some data analytics examples for informed decision-making. In Phase II, we will complete this digital value chain for all GSFC facilities at Greenbelt. Phase II Technical Objectives: Prototype EA-MBSE system enabling decision support for the GSFC facilities based on the Phase I plan Demonstrate the value through 3 defined use cases Create streamlined interactivity and visualization for easy information dissemination Create a technology plan addressing technical & operational challenges Deliverables: Quarterly reports & a final report Final prototype demonstration of developed technology Cameo UAF model for the facilities at Greenbelt at the end of Phase II Manuals & recorded short videos for the users/stakeholders unfamiliar with MBSE/UAF/Cameo to show how to make user-friendly traceability diagrams & tables at the end of Phase II.

As NASA moves from center-based to agency-level decision making, it is crucial to have an easily and a scalable solution for viewing connected information across domains. Our solution provides NASA with a tool to Conduct institutional CoF budget re-allocation and justification Perform facilities prioritization analysis for master planners Analyze and prioritize multi-facility energy conservation measure (ECM) projects Our solution enables these tasks to be accomplished cost effectively and without human induced errors. Our solution is also applicable to large government agencies such as DoE, NIH, and DoD agencies to large universities. It provides objective and crucial information rapidly and effectively with reusable views for decision-makers. This enable fully informed investment prioritization decisions cost effectively especially in rapidly changing budget environments and scenarios.

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