Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering Applications

Chapter 14Composition of Behavior Models for Systems Architecture

Clifford A. Whitcomb, Mikhail Auguston, and Kristin Giammarco

Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA

14.1 INTRODUCTION

The specification of a system’s architecture has emerged in the last two decades as one of the fundamental concepts in systems and software engineering. ISO (2011) defines architecture as the “fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution.” The current interest in understanding architecture and applying the methods across new disciplines as a basis for systems design and evaluation can be tied to recent systems failures and the fact that many can be traced to problems in their early stage definition (Maier and Rechtin, 2000). Architecture development methods have been used for many complex situations, even when the designers were not aware that this was the case. “Architectural methods, similar to those formulated centuries before in civil works, were being used, albeit unknowingly, to create and build complex aerospace, electronic, software, command, control, and manufacturing systems” (Maier and Rechtin, 2000). Indeed, the concept of developing architecture is very old, predating engineering, and continues to this day. “Architecting, the planning and building of structures, is as old as human societies—and as modern as the exploration of the solar system” (Rechtin, 1991). Architecture ...