Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2024

Publication Title

Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Management 2024 International Annual Conference

Pages

349-359

Conference Name

American Society for Engineering Management 2024 International Annual Conference, November 6-9, 2024, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA

Abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) serves as a powerful tool that can create a wide range of content, including but not limited to text, speech, images, code, videos, and 3D models. ChatGPT stands out as a particularly appealing Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) model that offers supplementary capabilities through GPTs and plugins. These extensions enable users to engage with the chatbot and improve its functionality, surpassing mere content generation. Our study delves into the potential of ChatGPT, specifically GPT-4, to expedite the creation of diagrams to support the system architecting process. To this end, we explored the use of ChatGPT's Diagrams Show Me plugin, which leverages Mermaid syntax, to generate the sequence, activity, state, UML activity, IDEF0, and DoDAF OV-5b diagrams. The same case study was used to render each diagram form during this investigation, allowing for a comparison of different types. The implication of paraphrasing the case description on the plugin's functionality was also investigated in our research, specifically focusing on text comprehension and entity identification. Our qualitative results contend that visualization performed competently with straightforward diagram forms such as sequence, activity, and state diagrams. Moreover, the diagram layouts changed visibly after paraphrasing the case study into an input and output format. The alteration resulted in more linear diagram formats that generally showed less suitable results for systems architecting. While human involvement continues to be essential in system architecture, utilizing GenAI holds a noteworthy potential to accelerate the diagram generation process, even for individuals lacking prior programming experience.

Rights

Copyright © 2024. Reprinted with permission of the American Society for Engineering Management. International Annual Conference. All rights reserved.

ORCID

0009-0000-0836-8481 (Yalim), 0000-0002-4798-003X (Handley)

Original Publication Citation

Yalim, C., & Handley, H. H. (2024). Integrating generative artificial intelligence with systems architecting diagram creation: Advancement, challenges, opportunities and future perspectives [Paper presentation]. American Society for Engineering Management 2024 International Annual Conference, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA.

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