IBM introduces Rhapsody Systems Engineering v1.5: Simplifying the adoption of SysML v2 for complex product development
Published 10/15/2025
Simplified, intuitive user interface and enhanced multi-user collaboration to lower barriers to adoption of SysML v2.
On 14 October 2025, IBM announced the release of Rhapsody Systems Engineering (SE) v1.5, a major update designed to help accelerate the adoption of SysML v2 for organizations developing complex systems in aerospace, defense, automotive and other mission-critical industries.
The new release addresses two fundamental challenges facing systems engineering teams: helping reduce the learning curve associated with SysML v2 language adoption and enabling multi-user collaboration on large-scale projects.
As competitive pressures intensify and product complexity grows, systems engineering has become more critical than ever to the success of advanced products. Organizations are increasingly turning to SysML v2 to improve cross-domain modeling and analysis of complex designs, control overall risk and development cost, and better address evolving stakeholder requirements. However, adopting SysML v2 has proven challenging for many teams due to formal nature and modeling complexity associated with the SysML v2 language.
Recognizing that SysML v2’s formal rigor can create adoption barriers, Rhapsody SE v1.5 introduces intuitive and yet intelligent simplifications and automations, developed to improve productivity and reduce the modeling learning curve.
Simple and intuitive gestures, such as drag-and-drop operations, automatically trigger the necessary changes to the underlying SysML v2 model, such as the creation of ports, action parameters, use case parameters, and other elements. This automation is designed to allow users to create compliant models efficiently and intuitively, without requiring deep expertise in SysML v2’s formal specifications and with less risk of modeling errors.
Additionally, v1.5 enables users to hide complex sub-structures within their models, minimizing information overload and helping engineers to focus on the aspects most relevant to their current work. This capability is particularly valuable when working with large, intricate system architectures.
Rhapsody SE v1.5 introduces multi-user collaboration capabilities that enable large, distributed teams to work together effectively on complex system designs. Engineers can now work on private configurations and explore design alternatives in their own branches, while seamlessly interacting with public “main” modeling branches, enabling parallel work streams without conflicts and supporting the scale requirements of enterprise engineering organizations.
Talk to an expert today about leveraging SysML v2 in your programs