Replication package for the research paper: Improving hardware/software interface management in SoS through DaC

<strong>Paper abstract</strong> <br> Context: The management of <em>Interface Control Documents</em> (ICDs) has shown to be a major pain point in the architecting processes of \textit{Systems of Systems} (SoS). Objective: This work aims to improve on previously identified ICD management issues using the documentation-as-code philosophy as a potential basis for a treatment, and in collaboration with practitioners. Method: We conducted a Technical Action Research (TAR) study with a group of engineers at the Netherlands Radio Astronomy Institute (ASTRON), in the context of the LOFAR radio telescope. An additional research instrument, in the form of an expert panel, was used to evaluate the transferability of the proposed treatment to alternative domains. Results: In-depth insights on previously identified interface management issues were gained. Based on these insights a functional proof-of-concept was developed aimed at addressing these issues following the documentation-as-code principles. In addition to receiving overall positive reviews from practitioners and experts, further areas of improvement and transferability considerations for future work were identified. Conclusions: The proposed approach, which to our knowledge has not been explored before in this context, is promising to address some of the recurring interfacing-related issues with directed SoS in multiple engineering domains. This could be done mainly by enforcing consistency and completeness on both text-based and formal elements of the ICDs, and turning ICDs into single sources of truth for the architecting processes of large scale SoS.

**论文摘要**
研究背景：接口控制文档（Interface Control Documents, ICDs）的管理已被证实是系统之系统（Systems of Systems, SoS）架构设计流程中的一大痛点。
研究目标：本研究旨在以代码化文档（documentation-as-code）理念作为解决方案的潜在基础，并联合行业从业者，改善此前已识别出的ICD管理问题。
研究方法：本研究针对荷兰射电天文研究所（ASTRON）的工程师团队开展了技术行动研究（Technical Action Research, TAR），研究场景为LOFAR射电望远镜项目。此外，本研究增设专家小组作为额外研究工具，用以评估所提解决方案在其他领域的可迁移性。
研究结果：本研究深入剖析了此前已识别的接口管理问题，并基于这些洞察遵循代码化文档原则，开发了一款用以解决上述问题的功能型概念验证原型。该方案不仅获得了从业者与专家的整体积极评价，同时还明确了未来工作中可优化的方向以及可迁移性考量因素。
研究结论：据我们所知，此前尚未在该场景下探索过本研究提出的方法，该方案有望解决多工程领域中定向系统之系统（SoS）反复出现的接口相关问题。具体可通过强制保障ICDs的文本与形式化元素兼具一致性与完整性，并将ICDs打造为大规模系统之系统架构设计流程的单一可信数据源来实现。