This paper puts into context previous research from the authors in the topic of problem complexity. In particular, it shows the benefits of using various domains to structure research, in this case systems theory, complexity science, and systems engineering methods. The paper shows how by unveiling scientific foundations first to inform the development of methods, these achieve high levels of effectiveness.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.03.037
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A Research on Measuring and Reducing Problem Complexity to Increase System Affordability: From Theory to Practice
1. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 1
A Research on Measuring and Reducing Problem
Complexity to Increase System Affordability
From Theory to Practice
By
Alejandro Salado and Roshanak Nilchiani
13th Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER)
March 18, 2015
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, NJ
www.stevens.edu/sse/CSER2015org
2. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 2
System affordbility
AFFORDABILITY
PERCEIVED VALUE
BUDGET
Perceived benefit Actual benefit Cost
Business Marketing Technology push
Process improvement
Labor
Outsourcing
Procurement strategies
Investment
System
development &
operation
DfE
DfA
Psychology-based
design
Spiral
Context/
Environment
Awareness
Lobby
Market change
Economic situation
Laws and regulations
Awareness
Lobby
Competition
Design&Develop.Tradespacedefinition
Use cases
Pugh matrices
Spiral, agile, lean
Other tradit. SE
De-scope needs
Use cases
Agile, lean
Pugh matrices
Other tradit. SE
NbC
Tradespace maximization/adaptation
Certification
Quality
Process improvement
6-sigma
Servicing Customer service
Evidence-based
deliverable
Skunkworks
Evidence-based
deliverable
Skunkworks
DfR, DfA, DfE,DfS, DfF,
Value-driven design
DtC, DfC, TCO, Cost
reviews, DfM, Complexity
control
Pareto Set
Tradespace exploration
Manuf.Ops.PM
Manuf.: Manufacturing - Ops.: Operation - PM: Project Management
3. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 3
Research design:
An end-to-end approach
4. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 4
Research design:
An end-to-end approach
5. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 5
Foundations: Theorems
A. Salado, R. Nilchiani, and D. Verma, A formal theory of requirements engineering: stakeholder needs, system requirements, solution spaces, and requirements qualities, unpublished.
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani, A mathematical justification for increasing the size of the solution space to improve the probabilities of designing compliant and affordable systems, unpublished.
VARIABLES RELATION
System
requirements
#Solution
space
#Solution
space
#Solution
space
#Solution
space
Conflicting
requirements
Difficulty of
compliance
Difficulty of
affordability
Monotonic
Monotonic
Monotonic
Monotonic
6. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 6
Excess requirements need to be
compensated with effort...
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani, Increasing the probability of developing affordable systems by maximizing and adapting the solution space, Procedia Computer Science, Vol. 28, 2014, pp. 547-554.
7. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 7
Consequence of foundations:
Problem complexity
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani, The Concept of Problem Complexity, Procedia Computer Science, Vol. 28, 2014, pp. 537-546.
8. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 8
From foundations to
practice
Traditionally
Requirement categories employed to facilitate completeness of a req set
Written from a designer perspective or procurement perspective
Sets of more tan 1,000 requirements, where each requirement COSTS
1. Because of their individual management
2. Because of their effect in unnecessarily reducing the solution space
but feel for completeness (not completeness) is paid at a high price
Mix product and process requirements
Facilitate redundant and overlapping requirements
Facilitate elicitation of solution constraints, not problem definition
Facilitate elicitation of requirements to enabling systems, not to the system
9. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 9
An excerpt from an actual
space system 35 requirements!
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani,A categorization model of requirements based on Max-Neefs model of human
needs, Syst. Eng., 17:348-360,2014
10. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 10
A method for practitioners
Value
level
Functions
(Do)
Performance
(Being)
Resources
(Have)
Interaction
(Interact)
Break-
event
Req. 1
Req. 2
Req. 3
Req. 4 Req. 5
Req. 6
Req. 7
Goal Req. 8 Req. 9
Wish Req. 10 Req. 11
Req. 12
Functional requirements (Do)
What the system does in essence, which includes what
it accepts and what it delivers
Performance requirements (Being):
How well the system does it, which includes
performance related to functions the system performs or
characteristics of the system on its own, such as ilities
Resource requirements (Have):
What the system uses to transform what it accepts in
what it delivers
Interaction requirements (Interact):
Where the system does it, which includes any type of
operation during its life-cycle.
A partition!
No overlap of categories
Full system definition
Requirements as subsets
Avoids flaw of individual
prioritization
Reflects value sets to
stakeholders
Bigger picture
understsanding
Facilitates relating functions
to their performance,
resources, and environment
Resources is more
Facilitates allocation of
unnecessary constraints for
easy identification
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani,A categorization model of requirements based on Max-Neefs model of human needs, Syst. Eng., 17:348-
360,2014
11. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 11
Measuring its effectiveness: an
experiment with practitioners
INCLUSION
Practicing SE
Non-practicing SE >5y SE exp
Researcher SE
EXCLUSION
Students
Not large-scale systems
Non SE
Non-parametric Mann-Whitney U Test
95% confidence / alfa = 0.05
ORGANIZATION
13 test + 8 control + 3 discarded
Random assignment
Isolation
NON-MANIPULATED INDEP.
Experience/Competence
Specific knowledge
DEPENDENT
Amount of constraints
Amount of inapplicable reqs
Completeness
INDEPENDENT
Categorization method
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani,Reducing excess requirements through orthogonal categorizations: results of a factorial experiment, unpublsihed, 2014.
12. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 12
Measuring its effectiveness: an
experiment with practitioners
MOE
Problem
statement
Self-perception on
req quality
Experience in
systems
engineering
1.H0 0.220 0.038 -0.055
2.H0 0.459* -0.166 -0.129
3.H0 -0.408 0.579 0.570
NULL HYPOTHESES
SECOND H0
Both groups elicit the same amount
of inapplicable reqs.
THIRD H0
Both groups elicit the same
amount of net requirements.
FIRST H0
Both groups elicit the same
amount of constraints.
種p = 0.001 0.025 0.804
Statistical power
> 97%
median = 26% vs 5% 18% vs 1% 24 vs 25
種 26% vs 0%
Completeness
Same level of completeness
Unnecessary constraints
Less unnecessary constraints
Inapplicable requirements
Less inapplicable requirements
!
A. Salado and R. Nilchiani,Reducing excess requirements through orthogonal categorizations: results of a factorial experiment, unpublsihed, 2014.
13. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 13
Identifying conflicting
requirements
Expert
assessment
? MBSE
- Low effectiveness
- Low effort
- Before architecture
- High effectiveness
- High effort
- Design exists
14. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 14
Tension matrix and
elemental decomposition
Reqs.
Resources Phases of matter
Elemental decomposition
Laws of
physics
Laws of society
Logical
r7 r8 r9 S L G V T P v L1 L2 L3
F
r1 X Methods
in
chapter 2
r2 X
r3 X
P
r4
r5 X
r6 X
R
r7
r8
r9
I
r10 X
r11 X
r12 X
Heuristics
Targeted modeling
Elemental decomposition
15. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 15
Identifying conflicting
requirements
NEEDS
- IR band imaging
- X band imaging
- PtP secure coms
r31 r32 S L G V Pc Temp OpTime Rfout Rfnoise R0 Data
The satellite shall perform X-band
operations at 30属 incidence angle.
The satellite shall operate for more than 5 X X L I
The satellite shall have a reliability higher L L
The satellite shall transmit communication
services at 7.75 GHz.
I
The satellite shall transmit image data at I
The satellite shall receive communication
services at 400 MHz.
L
The satellite shall transmit image data
with EIRP higher than 30 dBW.
I I
The satellite shall transmit communication
services with EIRP higher than 35 dBW.
I I
The satellite shall have a G/T higher than -
9 dB/K for communication services.
L
The satellite shall transmit telemetry data I
The satellite shall receive command data L
The satellite shall transmit telemetry data
with EIRP higher than 13 dBW.
I I
The satellite shall have a G/T for
receiving command data higher than -49
L
The satellite shall image the Earth with
spatial resolution better than 30 m.
Note: applicable to IR band.
X X L I
The satellite shall image the Earth with a
field of view higher than 1.22属.
Note: applicable to IR band.
I
The satellite shall image the Earth with
SNR higher than 125
Note: applicable to IR band.
L
The satellite shall have a radiometric
accuracy better than 2 unit.
Note: applicable to IR band.
The satellite shall image the Earth with
spatial resolution better than 4 m.
Note: applicable to X band in range and
azimuth directions.
I
The satellite shall image the Earth with a
swath of no less than 40 km.
X I
The satellite shall have a lower than -18 I I
The satellite shall store image data for up
to 4 h.
X X I
Req
ID
Requirement
Elementary decomposition
Laws of physics
Resources Phases of matter
PerformanceCategory
0
1
2
0 20 40 60
Utility
IR spatial resolution (m)
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Benchmark vs Tension matrix
1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8
x 10
6
0.5
0.52
0.54
0.56
0.58
0.6
0.62
0.64
0.66
0.68
Cost (k$)
Utility
16. CSER 2015 March 18-19, 2015 16
Wrapping up!
Continuous satisfaction
levels? Absolute calibration?
Empirical metrics for
improvement?