Integration principles for complex systems

Abstract

The integration of complex systems is an important aspect of systems engineering. This paper defines six integration principles to consider when planning and executing system development and integration processes. This paper describes these integration principles and validates them through a historical system survey. The 14 systems studied represent both integration successes and integration failures to show the universal applicability of the principles. The historical system analysis supported the validity of four of the six principles. The validity of one of the remaining principles could not be concluded through the evidence gathered. The validity of the final principle was inconclusive due to a lack of evidence found. Understanding these principles and how to apply them to an integration program will increase the probability of successful integration of future systems.

Systems integration implications of component reuse

“…Previous research reviewed several seminal works including “The Architecture of Complexity” by Herbert Simon, “Complexity as Thermodynamic Depth” by Seth Lloyd, and “General Systems Theory: Foundations, Developments, Applications” by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy and John W. Sutherland to identify a set of six candidate principles for complex systems integration 6,8–10 . The integration principles thus identified are listed in Table 1.…”

“…It was noted in the previous research that reuse components seemed to predicate integration failure in some cases 6 . An analysis was conducted in the previous work to identify interrelationships between Reuse and Evolvability and the other principles.…”

“…It is unclear what predicates failures or successes in reuse components or subsystems in complex engineered systems. A previous research effort qualitatively analyzed 14 historical integration programs and validated the principles of Hierarchy, Hierarchic Verification, Insight, and Optimization , but could not conclude that the principle of Reuse and Evolvability had either a positive or negative relationship with integration success 6 . Follow‐on research conducted a statistical analysis on an expanded set of 52 historical integration programs determined that the principle of Reuse and Evolvability and the system integration principles of Insight and Hierarchic Verification were significantly related to integration success.…”

Toward an integrated project complexity narrative – A case study of academic organizations

“…Some guiding principles for architecting complex systems using graph theory are suggested 39 . By addressing practical approaches toward complexity, complex systems and complexity science Simpson and Simpson, 40 Sheard, et al., 11 Watson, et al., 15 Siegenfeld and Bar‐Yam, 12 and Grumbach and Thomas 41 make important contributions to bridge the “theory‐practice gap”.…”

Contribution of the requirements engineering to the evaluation of water resources systems efficiency

“…Two approaches are generally adopted for the identification and the analysis of systems: structural view based on a set of constituents (subsystems) in mutual interaction and interaction with the environment integrated according to the mission. Dynamic view based on a sequence of processes (activities, functions) in interaction with the environment chained (coordinates) according to the mission or the results (Grumbach and Thomas 2020).…”