A Practical Method for Tradespace Exploration of Systems of Systems

Systems of Systems (SoS) are a current focus of many organizations interested in integrating assets and utilizing new technology to create multi-component systems that deliver value over time. The dynamic composition of SoS along with the managerial independence of their component systems necessitates systems engineering considerations and methods beyond those of traditional systems engineering, particularly during SoS concept design. Qualitative and heuristic-based guidance for SoS design is available in the literature, but there is a need for methods that will allow decision makers to quantitatively compare diverse multi-concept SoS designs in order to select value robust designs during concept exploration. In this paper, a quantitative method for SoS conceptual design, known as System of Systems Tradespace Exploration Method (SoSTEM), is presented. This method is based on the existing Dynamic Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration (MATE). MATE is a formal methodology for tradespace exploration during system design that allows the decision maker to make trades between both stakeholder preferences and systems early in the design process and includes the consideration of dynamic issues such as unarticulated stakeholder preferences and changing system context. SoSTEM enables the generation of SoS tradespaces where multi-concept architectures can be compared on the same performance and cost basis. This method allows the SoS designer to distinguish between component systems having high likelihood of participation in the SoS and those with lower likelihood of participation, based on the level of ‘Effective Managerial Authority’ that the SoS designer has over the component. In this paper, SoSTEM is demonstrated through application to two case studies, an Operationally Responsive System for Disaster Surveillance and a Satellite Radar System.