Capella Days 2024 wrapped up with a simple reminder. MBSE only creates value when it escapes the modeling room and lands in operations.
What stood out this year was the breadth of real work. From CERN’s radioactive waste process to semiconductor equipment at scale, to rail and maritime programs, we saw teams using Arcadia and Capella to make decisions earlier, reduce rework, and keep complex stakeholders aligned. Fewer debates about notation, more conversations about outcomes.
Two themes I kept hearing
1) Models as shared infrastructure. Several talks showed Capella acting as a backbone for downstream activities. Diagnostics that reuse functional dependencies from architecture. Digital thread scenarios where requirements, CAD, and simulation pick up model content automatically. When models feed other tools without friction, they stop being a deliverable and start being a service.
2) Accessibility as a hard requirement. Co-engineering practices that bring IVV in at the needs stage. Collaboration environments that let people contribute without local installs. Training approaches that scale beyond the core MBSE team. If non-MBSE stakeholders cannot read, comment, and trust the model, adoption stalls. We are clearly past that point.
The useful frictions
I welcomed the honest conversations about constraints. Security and confidentiality in model assets. Governance for multi-organization programs. If we want MBSE to support safety-critical and defense contexts, we must design for policy and auditability from the start.
What this means for Obeo
Our job is to keep lowering the barrier between intent and execution. That includes our open source work on Sirius Web and Eclipse SysON, our contributions around Capella, and the integrations customers rely on with PLM and simulation. We will continue to invest in onboarding, guidance in the tools, and smoother handoffs to downstream ecosystems. Less ceremony, more flow.
Thanks and next steps
Thank you to Thales for the partnership, to our sponsors and speakers, and to the community that keeps pushing what is practical. Capella Days has always been about sharing what actually works. This edition made that more visible than ever.
Recordings and slides are available. If you are exploring MBSE at program level and want to discuss co-engineering, digital thread, or governance, I am happy to compare notes.