The US Air Force Simulator Common Architecture Requirements and Standards (SCARS) Initiative is spearheading the employment of digital engineering principles for the design, development, sustainment, and upgrade of Air Force training systems. The SCARS digital engineering strategy includes the creation of an Operational Training and Test Infrastructure Enterprise System Model (OTTI-ESM) and a Government Reference Architecture (GRA) for simulators that captures common structures, interfaces, and behaviors in compliance with the WNS Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) style guide, based on the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). This style guide prescribes general rules for SysML models as well as specific conventions for engineering analysis, requirements tables, structure and behavior diagrams.
Because multiple government, industry, and military stakeholders contribute to the OTTI-ESM through construction of training system models used by SCARS, a consistent approach to evaluating SysML products is essential to the achievement of consistent modular openness and usability of MBSE artifacts. This paper will discuss various methodologies used to assess Modular Open Systems Approach in a system of systems context, SCARS evaluation methodologies and potential improvements in architectural metrics as applicable to evolving simulation architectures in a cyber-secure, cloud based environment. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are discussed, including the use of tiger team and peer review processes employed by the SCARS Engineering Capabilities Board and the AFLCMC/WNS MBSE team in conjunction with the SCARS Prime contractor, Partners, and Affiliates. The applicability of attribute-driven design principles to SCARS Reference Architecture development will also be discussed in conjunction with accessible tools and metrics. This paper provides examples of the methodologies used results achieved to date, lessons learned and proposed enhancements for the future.
Keywords
ASSESSMENT,OPEN ARCHITECTURE,STANDARDS
Additional Keywords
Model Based Systems Engineering, SysML