Does it hurt when you sit down to work on your SysML model? Does progress feel painfully slow, with simple changes taking far longer than they should? If your team feels stuck, frustrated, or overwhelmed by the modeling process, Pain-Free MBSE was created for you.
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) promises improved rigor, traceability, and insight—but in practice, many teams experience the opposite: slow progress, bloated models, fragile diagrams, and growing frustration. Too often, MBSE becomes an exercise in satisfying tools and processes rather than increasing the value of the models produced.
This course identifies the small number of modeling practices that disproportionately increase effort, complexity, and brittleness— and replaces them with clearer, more maintainable alternatives.
At the core is the Value-to-Pain Ratio (VPR): a practical lens for evaluating every modeling practice you adopt—so teams focus on techniques that deliver real value and stop doing work that only adds friction.
Pain-Free MBSE focuses on identifying the small number of modeling practices that create the majority of frustration, rework, and slow progress in real SysML projects—and replacing them with simpler, higher-leverage alternatives. Rather than introducing yet another heavyweight process, the course emphasizes practical techniques for writing clearer requirements, structuring models around responsibility and intent, and using behavior and parametrics only where they add real value. Throughout the course, students work through concrete examples and lab exercises that illustrate how to reduce model complexity, eliminate unnecessary artifacts, and make SysML models easier to build, understand, and maintain over time.
Designed to help teams regain momentum on real projects—without sacrificing rigor.
One of the strengths of the Pain-Free MBSE book and training is a comprehensive Lunar Lander example that runs through the entire course. It includes a fully working parametric simulation that serves both as a hands-on tutorial in SysML parametrics and—if you’re so inclined—a bit of fun: you can channel your inner Neil Armstrong and try your hand at landing the Lunar Module in the Sea of Tranquility.
The complete Lunar Lander simulation model is available for download here as a Cameo Systems Modeler (.mdzip) file:
Want to see the simulation running before you download it? Watch the Lunar Lander simulation on YouTube .
Pain-Free MBSE is available in an open enrollment format through Caltech CTME. Click the banner below for details and registration.
