SYSML17 — Implementation of non-normative extensions cannot be used in other OMG specifications

The extensions for SysML are of value to the general community, however, because they are not delivered in a machine readable and refrencable way, they cannot be used as a basis either for making normative to another specification and/or extended by another specification. There are issues as well for model interchange because of the lack of a normative form.

It is suggested that SysML specification change the extensions to normative but optional profile and to further describe a compliance in which if the non-normative extensions are used, the whole profile shall be used and only changed by extension of that profile. There should also be recommendations for migrating from vendor implementation of extensions to the new normative version.

The reason for this request is that the CubeSat System Reference Mode Profile (CSRM Profile)l used the non-normative extensions as a basis to further extend into the CubeSat domain. Unfortunately the use of the vendor supplied extensions were not from a compliant profile. The CSRM Profile team was forced to copy the extensions into the CSRM Profile in order to extend and use the extensions. This creates the danger that the CSRM Profile adds copies of the extension into a vendor's SysML implementation implementation and can cause interoperability issues.

At this time, the CSRM Profile is pre-finalization and we could convert to a compliant version rather than the copy of the extensions we created. We would like this treated as a priority fix to allow for the creation of an XMI for refere3nce by our specification.