Integrated Analysis of Functional and Developmental Interdependencies to Quantify and Trade-off Ilities for System-of-Systems Design, Architecture, and Evolution

Abstract When complex systems and systems-of-systems are involved, the behavior of the whole entity is not only due to that of the individual systems, but also to the interactions and interdependencies between the systems. Classical systems engineering approach is not always suitable to manage such feature, and new tools and methods are required, capable to identify, analyze and quantify properties of the system-of-systems as a whole. This research addresses the need to deal with complex dependencies between systems, in both developmental and functional relationships. We propose a combination of two previously developed methods, to analyze functional and developmental dependencies between systems in a system-of-systems, and to assess the impact of such dependencies on metrics that characterize global prop erties of a system-of-systems over its life span known as ilities. The analysis can be used to drive decisions for system-of- systems design, architecture, and evolution, with respect to the identified metrics of interest. It also accounts for the presence of multiple stakeholders, and external factors that influence the operability and the development of a system-of-systems. The methods support the analysis of trade-offs between competing ilities and facilitates identification of better performing architectures. We show preliminary results of the application of the methods, and how the results can be interpreted to evaluate system-of-system ilities on synthetic problems. We also propose the necessary steps for further improvement of the methods, and for future research.