Technical challenges of SoS requirements engineering

Abstract

Taken by themselves separate aspects of systems of systems (SoS) can be addressed by conventional system engineering techniques. That is, at least to a large degree, we know how to address the problems of distribution, emergence and evolution. The specific challenges posed by SoS arise from their combination. Additionally, we have to deal with independence of constituent systems (CS) of SoS, in particular, managerial independence. In this article we focus on technical challenges of mastering SoS requirements. Based on techniques for systems engineering we sketch problems that appear specifically in SoS engineering if we want to be able to use conventional engineering techniques as much as possible. The ultimate aim of our work is to develop tools that can support SoS requirements engineering.