Can OPM notation be incorporated like UML notation?

Hello Lucid enthusiasts! Rafael Olivas here. I'm currently a business analyst at Cisco Systems (in the Customer Experience org). I'm working on access control models to enable the right users to have access to the right customer data across technical support processes. I'm hoping to use OPM (object process methodology) to create those models. (OPM is a kind of cousin to UML and SysML. OPM has significant advantages to those notations in my opinion).

I've been using Lucidchart for many years and have come to depend on it for conceptual models and process work. But I do have one major request: Can OPM notation be incorporated like UML notation? OPM notation is substantially simpler than other engineering/architectural notations.

For example in the UML/SysML world there are multiple diagram types some of which share symbols some of which do not. In OPM notation there is only one diagram type and one set of symbols.

Also OPM syntax is much easier to "read" than other notations. It's less ambiguous yet rich enough to handle expressing ideas about data software hardware actors/agents and almost anything that models need to be about.

If there's anyone out here who wants to see I can share examples. And even better if anyone has OPM experience I'd love to have some dialog about developing models with OPM.

Links:

Video via MIT. Lecture by Dov Dori the author of OPM.

Wikipedia page on OPM. A bit dense but offers a pretty good overview.

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Hi Rafael

We're so happy you reached out and appreciate you sharing this great idea! We'd love it if you'd be willing to respond with screenshots and examples in this thread -- this helps us pass your feedback along to our development team.

We'd love to ask you a few questions about what you'd like to see from our community specifically related to user groups & how we can best facilitate the sharing of ideas with folks who have similar roles or personas. If you're open to participating in a brief interview with a member of our Community team please email us at community@lucidchart.com to let us know if you are interested. We hope to hear from you soon!

Hi Addie H. I'd like to join a "brief interview" on the subject of OPM notation. I tried sending an email to community@lucidchart.com but it bounced back with an error message. (Perhaps a second attempt will succeed). In the meantime in this post thread here's some background info:

By way of providing some background for whomever reviews this message here's a short note about the benefits:

Overview: OPM is a standardized symbol set similar to UML SysML and BPMN. It offers key advantages compared to other engineering notations:

Easier to adopt and learn. OPM includes a built-in English phrase equivalent which is automatically associated with every object process and relationship.

Only one diagram type (compared to 9 or 14 for SysML and UML respectively).

Complexity is more easily managed via parent-child nesting (instead of relying on multiple diagram types).

This screenshot from Research Gate shows common OPM symbols. There's not too many! And some of them are already available in Lucidchart. Anyone with OPM knowledge can "read" the model in a literal way even if they are not industry experts. For example Reconfigurable transceiver enables Receiving and Pointing processes. Receiving yields EO satellite signals. And Negotiation planner consists of Data management subsystem Scheduler and Orbital propagator.

Here's a few references:

Video overview by Dov Dori engineer and author of the notation. About 1 hr. Dori introduces OPM and compares it to SysML.

Model-Based Systems Engineering with OPM and SysML 1st ed. 2016 Edition. By Dov Dori the principal author of the notation. This is the standard theory and examples text for OPM.

OPCloud. A commercial tool that adopts the OPM notation. At present this is the only tool that fully adopts OPM and in fact is based on OPM exclusively. I provide this link only as inspiration.

ISO standard. ISO/PRF 19450 - Automation systems and integration — Object-Process Methodology Could be used as guiding technical reference for development. Note that a "minimal" symbol set can probably be developed that only needs a very small part of the standard.

Hi Rafael

Thank you for this fabulous in-depth response! We the community team don't manage product feedback directly - but it sounds like you've put a ton of great thought into this and would have great insight. I'll make sure to pass this along to the relevant product team.

We did receive your email and are definitely interested in talking with you more along the lines of structuring better Community spaces. We want to help facilitate those connections you described such as interacting with other Cisco users who have other similar use cases and experience. We're actively wanting to build this out within the Community and would love to learn more from you about what you'd be interested in on this front as well! Please see your email for further correspondence on this front.

Thank you for your feedback!

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