Well, you didn't say NOT to! A formal systems engineering approach to teaching an unruly architecture good behavior

Abstract

This paper proses a formal modeling approach for predicting emergent reactive systems and system of systems (SoS) behaviors resulting from the interactions among subsystems and among the system and its environment. The approach emphasizes specification of component behavior and component interaction as separate concerns at the architectural level, consistent with well-accepted definitions of SoS. The Monterey Phoenix (MP) approach provides features for production of emergent SoS behaviors. An example highlights limitations of current modeling languages and approaches that hinder prediction of emergent behavior, an demonstrates how the application of MP can enhance SoS modeling capability through the following principles: Model component interactions as general rules, orthogonal to the component behavior. Automatically extract possible scenarios (use cases) from descriptions of system behavior. Test system behavior against stakeholder expectations/requirements using scenario inspection and assertion checking. MP provides a new capability for automatically verifying system behaviora early in the lifecycle, when design flaws are most easily and inexpensively corrected. MP extends existing frameworks and allows multiple visualizations for different stakeholders, and has potential for application to multiple domains.