Formal methods for architecture model assessment in systems engineering

Abstract

In both the public and private sectors, systems engineering analysis studies are used to inform a range of decisions, from selecting among low level design alternatives to conducting high level portfolio management. These studies are conducted to help various stakeholders make and justify decisions that have a lasting effect on a system throughout its lifecycle. The quality of the data used in these analyses can have a strong influence on the outcome of these decisions. The research described in this paper investigates the application of formal methods to architecture model quality assessment. These methods can be used to create sets of measures and criteria relevant in the systems engineering problem domain that can be tailored for different events, analytics, and decision points. Using formal methods, stakeholders can decompose and express architecture data quality expectations unambiguously, and in a way that is abstract and independent of tool.