Involving the Application Domain Expert in the Construction of Systems of Systems

Abstract

The system of systems (SoS) is a system whose definition is based on pre-existing independent systems in the runtime environment. The latter is in perpetual evolution thus forcing a recurrent adaptation of the SoS. Thus, during their life cycle the SoS are very exposed to the problem related to the evolution mentioned above. This problem is mainly due to a poor communication between the requirement definition stage and the design stage. In this paper we propose a method for addressing SE for SoS using the concepts Mission and Role. The first one allows the definition of the SoS's behavior, while the second allows to abstract this definition with respect to the constituent systems that may actually exist in the environment. This definition will be translated into an abstract architecture. The later will serve as a guide and controller of the choices proposed by the system architect during the design and evolution stages. With our approach we have correctly defined an SoS concerning crowd management during a sport event.

System of Systems Modelling: Recent work Review and a Path Forward

“…MD-4. The paper [30] has provided an approach to support design activities in the SoS development process.…”

System of Systems Engineering: Meta-Modelling Perspective

“…In [3] the authors propose a process-based model to support design activities in the SoS development process by introducing some concepts like mission and roles. The proposed approach serves as a guide and controller of the choices proposed by the system architect during the design and evolution stage.…”

Systems of systems: From mission definition to architecture description

“…We define a role as “an abstraction of the characterization of the ideal behavior that will fulfill an action.” Several types of the constituent systems could be used to concretize a role in the concrete architecture: humans, hardware and software existing systems, and institutions. A constituent system is chosen when its capabilities match those required by a role and by considering the trade study and performance measures.…”

“…35 The mission is the main concept on the conceptual model We define a role as "an abstraction of the characterization of the ideal behavior that will fulfill an action." 36 The choice of a mission variant depends on the mission context (alternatives). The latter defines the circumstances under which a mission is to be accomplished.…”