Investigating Army systems and Systems of Systems for value robustness

Abstract

This thesis proposes a value robustness approach to architect defense systems and Systems of Systems (SoS). A value robust system or SoS has the ability to provide continued value to stakeholders by performing well to meet the mission intent under a variety of future contexts. The proposed approach encompasses three methods, namely "Needs to Architecture" framework, Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration (MATE) and Epoch-Era Analysis. The architecting approach will commence with the "Needs to Architecture" framework. Stakeholders' needs are elicited and design concepts will be formulated. MATE is then used to screen, evaluate and select suitable design concepts. Subsequently, Epoch-Era Analysis is used to guide system architects to anticipate changes across foreseeable epochs, which are time periods of fixed needs and context. The tradespace analysis is repeated across all these epochs. Pareto Trace and Filtered Outdegree metrics will be used to identify passive and active value robust designs. The proposed value robustness approach is demonstrated conceptually using an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) system and an Army SoS case study. The proposed value robustness approach offers a potential methodology to design and evaluate complex defense systems such that they continue to be valuable to stakeholders over time. The method is also complementary to existing architecting methods such as modeling and simulation. The end product of applying this approach is a cost efficient defense system, which might be passively or actively value robust. High switching and modification costs might be avoided even if changes to the active value robust defense system are required. Through the use of the Army SoS case study discussion, the author suggests that a value robust defense SoS architecture is one that encompasses the desired ilities of changeability and interoperability.