System Interoperability Influence on System of Systems Engineering Effort

An important characteristic of a System of Systems (SoS) is interoperability among its constituent systems. It enables the flow of information and the seamless introduction of new systems into the SoS. But interoperability comes at a price. Current studies indicate that there is significant engineering effort involved in making systems interoperable. However, this feature is not adequately represented in current cost models. To characterize and quantify the interoperability (or non-interoperability) influence on SoS engineering effort, this paper analyzes 14 interoperability models and presents two approaches that can be used as an extension to the COSYSMO or COSYSMO for SoS cost models.