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Systems of systems engineering
Software Engineering (CSPC 111)
STI West Negros University
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Systems of systems engineering
Systems of systems engineering is the process of integrating existing systems to create new functionality and capabilities. Systems of systems are not designed in a top-down way. Rather, they are created when an organization recognizes that they can add value to existing systems by integrating these into a SoS. For example, a city government might wish to reduce air pollution at particular hot-spots in the city. To do so, it might integrate its traffic management system with a national real-time pollution monitoring systems. This then allows for the traffic management system to alter its strategy to reduce pollution by changing traffic light sequences, speed limits and so on.
The problems of software SoS engineering have much in common with the problems of integrating large-scale application systems that I discussed in Chapter 15 (Boehm and Abts 1999). To recap, these were:
Lack of control over system functionality and performance.
Differing and incompatible assumptions made by the developers of the different systems.
Different evolution strategies and timetables for the different systems.
Lack of support from system owners when problems arise.
Much of the effort in building systems of software systems comes from addressing these problems. It involves deciding on the system architecture, developing software interfaces that reconcile differences between the participating systems, and making the system resilient to unforeseen changes that may occur.
Software systems of systems are large and complex entities, and the processes used for their development vary widely depending on the type of systems involved, the application domain, and the needs of the organizations involved in developing the SoS. However, as shown in Figure 20, five general activities are involved in SoS development processes:
Conceptual design I introduced the idea of conceptual design in Chapter 19, which covers systems engineering. Conceptual design is the activity of creating a high- level vision for a system, defining essential requirements, and identifying constraints on the overall system. In SoS engineering, an important input to the conceptual design process is knowledge of the existing systems that may participate in the SoS.
System selection During this activity, a set of systems for inclusion in the SoS is chosen. This process is comparable to the process of choosing application systems for reuse, covered in Chapter 15. You need to assess and evaluate existing systems to choose the capabilities that you need. When you are selecting application systems, the selection criteria are largely commercial; that is, which systems offer the most suitable functionality at a price you are prepared to pay?
However, political imperatives and issues of system governance and management are often the key factors that influence what systems are
organizations involved, this process can be prolonged and difficult. It may involve organizations changing their own policies and processes. It is therefore important to start governance discussions at an early stage in the SoS development process.
Systems of systems engineering
Course: Software Engineering (CSPC 111)
University: STI West Negros University
