Open Innovation
The way we develop cutting-edge technologies
At Obeo, we harness the power of Open Innovation to develop the cutting-edge technologies that serve our customers.
Open Innovation is a collaborative approach where, together with our customers and partners, we co-create innovative solutions tailored to their specific needs. These projects are carried out in iterative cycles, in close collaboration with Obeo’s technical teams, resulting in customized solutions built on open-source projects, to which we contribute directly, or indirectly by adapting and extending them.
Why?
By sharing knowledge and resources, through open-source projects, we foster an environment that enables effective collaboration with our partners, balancing both specific and generic needs.
- Collaborative Ecosystem: Partners share knowledge and assets for mutual benefit.
- Innovative Product Development: a balanced approach that meets specific needs while fostering the emergence of innovation.
- Better Roadmap Control: Organizations gain greater influence on future product developments.
Behind the creation of Sirius and Capella
Thales has supported Obeo since its inception, when they asked us to create a new technology that could reduce both the complexity and cost of developing their own MBSE modeling tool.
This collaboration led to the creation of Sirius, an open-source technology that enabled them to develop the diagram editors of Capella, the MBSE workbench that was also made open-source a few years later.
Since then, Thales has regularly funded the development of new Sirius features to meet their operational needs.
Industrializing a Capella Add-on
Rolls-Royce is using Capella to develop a new generation of engine to power short-haul and long-haul aircraft.
To integrate safety processes directly into Capella, Rolls-Royce initially created a prototype add-on. They called upon Obeo to industrialize this prototype by making it a production-ready solution.
As requested, Obeo proposed carrying out the project through an agile approach: successive sprints of implementation of more and more features with a usable result delivered regularly. The usable result was validated by Rolls-Royce, and the result is now being rolled out on some of their key projects.
Shaping the Future of Model-Based Engineering
CEA-List and Obeo have initiated a collaboration to serve their long-term vision for the web-based engineering tools of the future:
- a modernized version of the globally adopted UML product Papyrus, through a migration to Sirius Desktop,
- a new generation of open-source model-based solutions based on web technologies, potentially enriching Sirius Web with new generic and reusable services,
- a web-based version of the forthcoming systems engineering standard SysML v2 through the open-source project SysON.
Model-Driven Development Workbench
The French Department of Defense created SAFR@N, a custom Software Factory based on the Model-Driven Development approach.
The modeling tools and code generators that make up SAFR@N were developed by Obeo with Eclipse Sirius. They allow the operational staff to specify user interactions, screens, services, and business entities, and to automatically generate Java source code that complies with the Department’s specific framework.
Maintained by Obeo since 2011, SAFR@N has been deployed on several major projects. A substantial part of the outcome has been contributed to Open Source in the IS Designer project.
From Academic Technology to Industrial-Grade Open Source
POOSL language and tool offer a general purpose method for describing and simulating (embedded) system architectures for the early evaluation of key structural and behavioral concepts, requirements and performance.
The Eindhoven University of Technology initially developped the POOSL language. Then TNO-ESI developed the accompanying tool.
Adopted by TNO-ESI as a standard modeling and analysis tool following its successful application in the high-tech industry, it is now an open-source project contributed by TNO-ESI and Obeo to the Eclipse Foundation.
Modeling tool for Physical Equation Systems.
ETAS, a subsidiary of the Bosch Group providing solutions for the development of automotive embedded systems, used Eclipse Sirius to create the graphical editors of Constraint Graph, a modeling tool for describing Physical Equation Systems.
In this context, ETAS funded the development of a new Sirius feature that allows the definition of dynamically customizable SVG shapes. Being an Open Source contribution to the Eclipse project, all Sirius users can take advantage of this feature.
Open Source
Open source is a catalyst for innovation. It plays a crucial role by lowering costs of robust and high-quality technologies, and fostering a sustainable, adaptable ecosystem:
- Easier access to education, academia, and experimentation.
- Mitigating vendor lock-in by simplifying the sharing of data and applications.
- Enhanced sustainability and long term availability of the technology.
- Enabling industrial collaboration, investments sharing and improved product roadmap influence.
- Lowering the price for foundational capabilities.
- Encouraging investments and competition on higher value capabilities.
- Technological enabler for third-party addons fostering a rich ecosystem.
To achieve these benefits, collaboration under a vendor-neutral governance model is essential.
This is why Obeo is a strategic member of the Eclipse Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that supports and strengthens an independent, open, and transparent community to foster a sustainable ecosystem.
We are proud to count around twenty Eclipse committers (who can modify source code) and several project leaders for projects such as Sirius, SysON, Acceleo, and EMF Compare.
Possible Receptacles
The outcome of an open-innovation project is typically a tailored, industrial-grade solution made up of dozens of technical components. These components are not necessarily contributed to open-source projects. They may end in different receptacles depending on the benefits for the community, as well as the objectives, challenges and constraints of the partners:
- Open Source: the component is generic and aligns with an open-source project’s goals (such as fostering community collaboration, enhancing interoperability, or driving widespread adoption). It can be integrated into this open-source project, benefiting from other adopters' feedback, and continuous improvements by its developers, alongside their regular releases.
- Obeo’s Commercial Product (COTS): the component is generic and may interest other customers of a commercial product developed and distributed by Obeo, providing them with added value or advanced functionalities. It can be integrated into this product, benefiting from continuous improvements, alongside regular releases by its developers.
- Partner’s Property: the source code is strategic for the partner, who does not want to share it, or it does not align with the goals of the open-source project or Obeo. It may remain the exclusive property of the partner, who then solely assumes the costs of maintenance and upgrades.
Collaboration Mode
At Obeo, each project developed through Open Innovation consists of three main phases:
- Discovery: During this preliminary phase, which lasts about two weeks, we work with the client to develop a demonstrator of the solution. This allows us to validate our understanding of their needs, ensure the suitability of our technologies for the proposed solution, and assess the feasibility of the project. Together, we co-define a roadmap for the next steps.
- Development: Throughout a series of two-week iterations, we develop the solution with our client. Each iteration, carried out in an agile mode, produces components that can either be generic and contribute to open-source projects, or entirely specific and potentially integrated with components developed directly by the client.
- Maintenance: Once the project is completed and delivered, it enters a maintenance phase during which the client can subscribe to an annual plan that covers generic components (Software Assurance) and/or specific components (Maintenance Agreement).
The Open innovation project is overseen by a dedicated Project Lead. As a member of the Projects team, he is responsible for managing the project on behalf of Obeo, serving as the main point of contact for the client, and ensuring that both client requirements and Obeo's commitments are fully met.
The Project Lead directly manages a team of technical experts involved in the project and fosters seamless collaboration with the leads of the products that will incorporate some of the open innovation project’s outcomes. This ensures that developments are smoothly integrated at the optimal level and benefit from the highest level of technical expertise.
Throughout the project, our teams focus on key concerns that define all our software: testability, scalability, performance, reusability, extensibility, user experience, and maintainability, all within an industrialized release-engineering process.
