Guiding Principles for the Development of Complex Systems

We promote: Reuse at All Levels of Abstraction Abstract multiple disciplines to properly annotated information representations. This is the only way to allow communication among disciplines and multiple contextual views. Figure 1. Layers of Abstraction in Reuse A "general-purpose" information representation that can describe all aspects of system behavior and structure is currently unavailable. Hence, systems must work with multiple information abstractions. For example: High Level of Abstraction Low Level of Abstraction Unified Modeling Language (UML), Technical drawings, Ontologies (Semantic Web). Three dimensional geometric models, Engineering simulation packages. Use of Object-Relational Database Storage Enable reuse of designs, architectures and business processes through object-relational database storage. Figure 2. Business Processes supported by Technology Object-relational database storage can be the foundation for "platform-based design" of engineering systems. Quantitative Procedures for System Evaluation, Optimization and Trade-Off Develop sophisticated algorithmic, mathematical and quantitative methods implementable in modern software environments for system evaluation, ranking, optimization and trade-off analysis.

Section 5-4: April, 2003.