Using SysML modeling to understand and evolve systems of systems

The recent Department of Defense (DoD) guidebook, Systems Engineering Guide for Systems of Systems, describes how traditional systems engineering activities have evolved to support systems engineering at the system of systems (SoS) level. Part of the research for this guidebook probed the application of modeling and simulation to support SoS systems engineering. The findings indicated that limited modeling and simulation are currently used, but that additional support would be useful if models could be quickly generated and used to support needed decision making. This paper presents an approach to using Systems Modeling Language (SysML) models to support these needs. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 16