System of systems engineering - the link between operational needs and system requirements

Abstract

Recently, defence capability development practices have moved towards approaches that include capability based planning and traditional systems engineering methodologies. Internationally, defence force capability development efforts struggle to bring together intended capability planning and actual systems on the ground. Smith and Oosthuizen showed that the Capability Life Cycle and System Life Cycle can be unified through the use of System of Systems Engineering methodologies that include Joint Concept Development and Experimentation, Joint Architecture Management, Joint Knowledge Management and Joint Operational Force Employment. The challenge is to ensure that the actual systems fielded accurately reflect the intended capability; requirements traceability between the intended capability and the fielded systems must be preserved in the capability decomposition process. This paper proposes a capability decomposition approach that addresses this challenge.