Dunchurch Management Services

Systems of Systems - Technical Leadership in a Networked World

A 3-Day Course

Presenting Sound Solutions for Complexity in the areas of Architecting, Integration, Collaboration, and Test

Today’s environments are dominated by complex systems of systems. As a result, systems engineers now have the responsibility to create systems of unprecedented scope and complexity.  These objectives are not the only challenge.  The development environment for a system of systems is typically characterized by its own unique challenges, such as an extended life cycle, requirements to use legacy systems as components, and ongoing re-architecting throughout the lifecycle of the system and its component systems.  Success under these conditions requires developing a sound design, managing complexity, maintaining the integrity of that design, and supporting shifting operational priorities over significant time spans while avoiding the lurking potential of chaotic conditions.

To meet these challenges, this course presents detailed, useful techniques to develop effective systems of systems and to manage the engineering activities associated with them. 

Practice the skills on a realistic exercise in complexity. Create an emergent SoS.  Revise its architecture to improve its behavior. Collaborate and compete. Implement integration & test.

The Collective Emergent Robotics Exercise gives students the opportunity to practice the skills taught in the course while collaboratively developing an evolving system of systems consisting of actual operating robots.

Topics Covered in the Course

Introduction - Systems of Systems concepts.  Expectations for what an SoS can achieve. Terms and definitions.

• What is a system of systems?
• Operational environment: geographic distribution, concurrent operations
• Development issues: evolutionary, large scale, distributed

Systems of Systems Challenges

Complexity issues versus traditional systems engineering.  Systems engineering in transition.  Paradigm shifts.  Framework for working with systems of systems

• Complexity and chaos as an underlying principle
• Issues in complex adaptive systems: attractors, adaptation, autocatalysis, nonlinear dynamics
• Emergent behavior and the use of patterns
• Self-organization in SoS
• Problems with traditional systems engineering in relation to SoS.
• New paradigms for engineering complex systems

Architecture Solutions - Design strategies for SoS reflect the independent  origin of the included systems, greater scale and complexity of the SoS environment, and the distinct lifecycle of the SoS.

• Capabilities engineering as a top-down approach to defining and architecting complexity
• Large scale architectures
• Architectural Frameworks - DODAF, TOGAF, Zachman, FEAF
• Using the DOD Architectural Framework (DODAF), the types of views and how they work
• Dynamic optimization, the bottom-up approach that happens by itself
• Patterns in architecting and how to use them

Integration Solutions - Integration strategies for SoS cope with the dynamic character of the SoS environment, the presence of systems that originated outside the immediate control of the project staff, and the difficulty of anticipating shifting SoS priorities over the operating life of the systems. 

• Interface definition and control, as a way to control the complexity
• Examples and lessons from the world-class TCP/IP
• Coupling and interoperability, how to control the interactions among systems and humans
• The design of open systems; technologies for open systems; constitutions
• Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) systems and how they fit
• Legacy Systems as used in an SoS

Collaboration Solutions - The SoS environment puts special demands on the systems engineering processes.  Collaborative efforts often extend over long periods of time and can require effort across organizational contexts.  SoS often have many systems engineers collaborating explicitly or implicitly, at the same time (concurrently) or at disjoint times.  Collaboration may occur over decades. 

• Working with multiple, cross-connected teams
• Roles of project leaders in SoS development
• Responsibilities from the SoS side

• Responsibilities from the component systems side
• Strategies for managing collaboration
• Concurrent systems engineering across time and distance
• Disjoint systems engineering; building on the past to meet the future
• Strategies for maintaining integrity of systems engineering efforts over long periods of time when working in independent organizations.
• Managing program interfaces using control versus influence
• Politics as a systems engineering tool

Testing and Evaluation Solutions - Testing and evaluation in the SoS environment present unique challenges due to the evolutionary nature of development.  Multiple levels of T&E are necessary, and the usual success criteria no longer suffice.

• Multiple levels of T&E
• Evaluating SoS interfaces - why interface testing is necessary but isn’t enough
• Validating the functional footprint of the SoS
• Evaluating SoS dynamics
• Finding and evaluating emergent behavior, both favorable and detrimental

Need to know more? Contact Dunchurch about the Systems of Systems.