Ontology-Based Functional Decomposition from Stakeholder Needs for Complex System Adaptability

Common Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods used by enterprises to realize complex systems can result in the manifestation of unintended emergent behaviors due to logical inconsistencies present in the models. Conway’s law states the socio-technical systems that engineers, managers, and executives use to realize integrated systems constrain and influence the design of the realized system. If logical inconsistencies are present in the socio-technical system models, including but not limited to discrepancies between artifact representations of requirements, architecture, function, and integration artifacts, those inconsistencies will propagate into the system itself and possibly manifest as emergent behavior. In this work, ontology-based MBSE specific to adaptable system operation is presented using the ontologies foundational to the Engineering Management Platform for Integration, Realization, and Execution (EMPIRE) socio-technical system. A Goal-Based Operational Concept is introduced with diagrammatic representation of system adaptability. Functions and capabilities are said to depend on interfaces that can be connected or disconnected. Degraded functionality, degraded performance, or interface connectivity is modeled to represent path variation along a use case operational scenario. Operationally adaptable systems can achieve parametric goals despite path variation, and the methodologies are not dependent on system complexity. The domain-agnostic MBSE methods are realized and demonstrated within EMPIRE, an open-source, ontology-based socio-technical system.

企业用于实现复杂系统的主流基于模型的系统工程（Model-Based Systems Engineering, MBSE）方法，可能会因模型中存在的逻辑不一致性，引发非预期的涌现行为。康威定律（Conway’s law）指出：工程师、管理者与决策者用于构建集成系统的社会技术系统（socio-technical system），会对所实现系统的设计形成约束并产生影响。若此类社会技术系统模型中存在逻辑不一致性——包括但不限于需求、架构、功能及集成工件的表征存在偏差——这些不一致性会传导至系统本身，并可能以涌现行为的形式显现。本研究提出了适配于自适应系统运行的基于本体的MBSE方法，其依托集成、实现与执行工程管理平台（Engineering Management Platform for Integration, Realization, and Execution, EMPIRE）这一社会技术系统的底层本体构建。本文引入了基于目标的运行概念（Goal-Based Operational Concept），并通过图示化方式展示系统的自适应特性。研究认为，功能与性能依赖于可连接或断开的接口。研究针对功能退化、性能下降或接口连接状态进行建模，以表征用例运行场景下的路径变异。尽管存在路径变异，具备运行自适应能力的系统仍可达成参数化目标，且该方法不依赖于系统的复杂程度。本研究在开源的、基于本体的社会技术系统EMPIRE中实现并演示了领域无关的MBSE方法。