A Prescriptive Approach to Lifetime Value-focused System Architecture

The most critical requirements for the lifetime value of a system are its nonfunctional requirements (NFRs) such as reliability, security, maintainability, changeability, etc. These are collectively known as the “ilities,” and they are typically not addressed in system design until the functional architecture has been completed. In this paper, we propose the use of quality-based design that modifies this standard process so that those NFRs, which actually reflect the true business needs, are addressed first. This is accomplished through a combination of quality attribute workshops, to elicit and refine quality-based mission objectives, and attribute-driven design, where design heuristics, termed tactics, can be employed in the decomposition of the system. This ensures that the final system better reflects and embodies those architecturally significant requirements rather than having them addressed secondarily. This is an important change since the “ilities” are systemic properties (properties of the system as a whole) rather than properties of individual components or subsystems. Consequently, they are difficult to address in an architecture that has already been decomposed with respect to required functionality. To illustrate the proposed approach, we provide an example based upon the Department of Defense Pre-positioned Expeditionary Assistance Kit.

Files

Metadata

Work Title A Prescriptive Approach to Lifetime Value-focused System Architecture
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Colin J. Neill
  2. Raghvinder S. Sangwan
  3. Nil H. Kilicay-Ergin
Keyword
  1. Attribute-driven design (ADD)
  2. Disaster assistance system
  3. Quality attribute workshop
  4. System architecting
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. IEEE Systems Journal
Publication Date May 11, 2015
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. 10.1109/JSYST.2015.2423259
Related URLs
Deposited August 04, 2023

Versions

Analytics

Collections

This resource is currently not in any collection.

Work History

Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Updated
  • Added Creator Colin Neill
  • Added Creator Raghu Sangwan
  • Added Creator Nil Hande Ergin
  • Added IEEE Systems Neill Sangwan Ergin.docx
  • Updated Publication Date, License Show Changes
    Publication Date
    • 11 May 2015
    • 2015-05-11
    License
    • https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
  • Published
  • Updated

Version 2
published

  • Created
  • Updated Keyword Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Attribute-driven design (ADD), disaster assistance system, quality attribute workshops, system architecting
    • attribute-driven design, quality attribute workshop, system architecting
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Publisher Show Changes
    Keyword
    • attribute-driven design, quality attribute workshop, system architecting
    • Attribute-driven design (ADD), Disaster assistance system, Quality attribute workshop, System architecting
    Publisher
    • IEEE
    • IEEE Systems Journal
  • Renamed Creator Colin J. Neill Show Changes
    • Colin Neill
    • Colin J. Neill
  • Renamed Creator Raghvinder S. Sangwan Show Changes
    • Raghu Sangwan
    • Raghvinder S. Sangwan
  • Renamed Creator Nil H. Kilicay-Ergin Show Changes
    • Nil Hande Ergin
    • Nil H. Kilicay-Ergin
  • Updated