Systems Engineering for the Digital Age

Chapter 36Portfolio Management and Optimization for System of Systems

Frank Patterson, David Fullmer, Daniel Browne, and Santiago Balestrini‐Robinson

Georgia Tech Research Institute, Systems Engineering Research Division, Smyrna, GA, USA

Overview and Motivation

Management of a portfolio of capabilities, generally realized in a suite of physical systems, is a common problem faced by the agencies and programs within the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Standardized methods of tackling these problems have been developed over time, with a focus on sound systems engineering (SE) principles and tools. Although a standard process is commonly executed in solving these portfolio management problems, a standardized suite of tools is nonexistent to support that process. Most often, new tools are developed by each SE team, sometimes leveraging a past tool utilized by the team in an ad hoc manner. Similarly, each engineering or design challenge has its own level of specificity which oftentimes warrants, or even requires, a customized approach. Therefore, the balance between reusable capabilities and flexibility in integrating those capabilities is necessary to advance the state of practice and produce timely assessments of optimal portfolios.

This limited reuse of tools is a primary motivator for research in this area. Building this toolbox of portfolio analysis and optimization tools is something that organizations do over time, but are seldom able to further develop them unless ...