Modeling and Validation of Architectures and Requirements of Systems-of-Systems

• Grant number: 17/15354-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 15, 2017
• End date: October 14, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Elisa Yumi Nakagawa
• Grantee: Cristiane Aparecida Lana
• Supervisor: Dieter Rombach
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/06195-3 - Iterative framework for modeling and validation of requirements for systems-of-systems, BP.DR

Abstract

Systems-of-Systems (SoS) refer to large, complex, and software-intensive systems, resulted from the interoperability among heterogeneous, independent constituent systems. The main purpose of SoS is to perform tasks that could not be achieved by these constituents separately. In parallel, Requirements Engineering (RE) has been already extensively researched and many proposals (e.g., processes, methods, techniques, and tools) have been made and in fact adopted, including in the industry. In this scenario, the main problem that has motivated the conduction of this PhD proposal is that SoS present an inherent and continuous evolution, sometimes, resulted from new missions that emerge at runtime or changes in their independent constituents or even in the environment. As a consequence, new requirements emerge and must be elicited, analyzed, modeled, validated, designed, implemented, and incorporated in the SoS. Moreover, problems in such requirements, when not adequately treated, could be fatal to human life and/or lead to the lost of valuable physical assets or monetary, considering the critical application domains where SoS operate. Continuous changes directly impact the requirements of both SoS and their constituents and also the subsequent stages of the SoS development. Thereby, the main goal of this proposal is to evaluate the iterative framework composed of a method for formal modeling and a method for formal validation of requirements for SoS with special attention to architectural requirements, mainly addressing the new missions not previously predicted in design time. To evaluate this framework, we will conduct surveys with experts and case studies. During the internship, the candidate will join a largest Europe's application-oriented research institution: the Fraunhofer IESE, in Germany. In particular, during her visit, the candidate will have a valuable opportunity to work on industry projects and conduct the cases studies planned for this PhD project in the industry context. This visit will certainly strengthen our contributions to the Requirements Engineering and SoS domain.