Trade-off Analytics

Chapter 15Summary and Future Trends

Gregory S. Parnell

Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

Simon R. Goerger

Institute for Systems Engineering Research, Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, MS, USA

 

Anybody who has the reins of power has to look at practical limitations and trade-offs - the fact that you can focus at most on one or two things at a time, that resources are limited.

Barton Gellman

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

Michael Porter

15.1 Introduction

In this final chapter, we summarize the major themes of the book and identify some potential trends that may impact trade-off analyses in the future. The major themes were also the guiding principles that were used in the development of the INCOSE Decision Management Process in the Systems Engineering Handbook (INCOSE, 2015) and the Decision Management Process section in the SEBoK (SEBok, 2015). Next, we consider future trends in systems engineering that may provide opportunities for improved trade-off studies. This section discusses the trends concerning people, tools, and processes.

15.2 Major Trade-Off Analysis Themes

As we wrote this book, we had several themes or guiding principles. In this section, we describe each of these major themes and where they are emphasized in the book.

15.2.1 Use Standard Systems Engineering Terminology ...