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The OCSMP Model User examination tests the candidate's ability to interpret and understand SysML models, covering fundamental concepts and elements of all nine SysML diagram types plus a set of additional concepts that cut across diagram types. Using the knowledge and skills covered at this level, a holder of the OCSMP Model User Certification can be a productive member of a Systems Development team employing a model-based systems engineering approach using SysML. The OCSMP Model User Certification is a prerequisite for the three Model Builder levels of OCSMP certification.

This page starts with a Coverage Table of the topics and subtopics covered on the OCSMP Model User Examination, and the approximate percentage of the exam that each occupies. Following the Coverage Table is the list of references, along with suggestions for study.

OCSMP MODEL USER EXAM - REFERENCE LIST

The Model User Examination tests the knowledge and skills required to interpret and understand SysML models and diagrams used to design and specify systems. As you prepare for this examination, you should not only study the SysML model elements in the basic feature set listed in the coverage map above, but should also practice reviewing SysML models until you can look at a set of diagrams and understand the set of basic relationships that tie them together.

The OCSMP Conventions and Abbreviations List: You are responsible for covering the elements of SysML yourself, but we've put together a short paper, posted here, listing a few notations and conventions that might not be pointed out in every study source. It's not complete, but we expect that you'll find it helpful. 

Books: 

• A Practical Guide to SysML: The Systems Modeling Language
  Sanford Friedenthal, Alan Moore, and Rick Steiner - Morgan Kaufman/OMG Press, 2008
  This comprehensive book covers much more than the fundamental level of SysML tested on this examination. Study the examples to learn how an underlying model is represented consistently in a set of diagrams of different types. Chapter 3 provides a good introductory example. All three authors contributed to the SysML specification.
• Systems Engineering with SysML/UML: Modeling, Analysis, Design
  Tim Weilkiens - Morgan Kaufman/OMG Press, 2006
  This book covers SysML starting from a UML perspective, including all of the subtopics in this exam. The author contributed to the SysML specification.

Presentation (Downloadable Free): 

• The OMG SysML Tutorial 
  Note: This tutorial presents SysML basics (and, for some topics, more than just basics) in an extensive slide set. 

• Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML)
  Joe Wolfrom – Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) 
  An introductory course in SysML that provides an overview of the basic concepts and constructs of the language. Sections include a Course Overview, a SysML Overview, a section on each of the nine SysML diagram types, and a section on Allocation. This course was developed as a JHU/APL internal training course, and is based primarily on the material found in the book , “A Practical Guide to SysML”, referenced above. The zip file of course material contains 14 PDF files of slides. 

Article (Downloadable Free): 

• Georgia Tech Parametrics Primer 
  Simulation-Based Design Using SysML. Part I: A Parametrics Primer, by RS Peak and others including four contributors to these examinations. Sections 1 and 2 of this article cover parametrics at about the OCSMP  Model User level.  

SysML Examples: 

Many of the questions on this examination test your ability to extract information about a system from a model, but the exam will not test your knowledge of any particular domain such as the Hybrid SUV, telescope, etc. modeled in these examples. The collection illustrates the range of application of SysML and may let you choose one or a few close to your own application domain for detailed study.

• Hybrid SUV Example (downloadable free): Annex B from  the SysML Specification, extracted and presented here as a stand-alone document. This example is a good place to start reading and interpreting SysML models. It provides at least one example of each diagram type, emphasizing the more basic language constructs. Note however, that the example does not include all of the constructs listed above and covered in this examination.

• Automobile Design Example: Chapter 3 of A Practical Guide to SysML: The Systems Modeling Language (cited above) presents an example model that uses every SysML diagram type at least once, and most more than once. Like the Hybrid SUV model just above, this example does not cover all of the constructs included in this exam although the two examples combined cover 90% of the material. 

• The official OMG SysML Website includes a very brief introduction to SysML, news items (including many about this certification program), and links to papers and websites with examples and other useful SysML-related information.

OMG Specifications (Downloadable free): 

• The SysML Specification Document 
  Note: We do not recommend that you study the language itself from this document since it's a formal definition written for SysML tool builders, not model builders. The extensive Hybrid SUV example in Annex B, which includes every diagram type and is well worth studying, is available as a standalone document via the link a few paragraphs above. 

For more information or questions about the OMG Certification Program, please contact certificationinfo@omg.org
OCUP, OCRES, OCEB and OCSMP are joint programs of the OMG and the UML Technology Institute (UTI)