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Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) accomplish a wide spectrum of missions ranging from generic to extremely specific. Although not all UUVs can accomplish all missions, there is significant replication of the requirements and the systems across the family of UUVs. The design process for UUVs balances operational requirements, design feasibility, expected performance, schedule, budget, and ultimate system and life-cycle costs. The U.S. Department of Defense does not have an established process for developing UUV Systems Engineering (SE) requirements. This results in duplicative development efforts adding unnecessary costs to UUV programs. This paper investigates the SE requirements and interfaces across various UUV mission spaces to establish complexity and reuse weights. A Constructive SE Cost Model (COSYSMO) is applied to determine the cost advantage to reuse SE requirements for UUV assets across different mission spaces to determine an overall SE effort. Requirements from the baseline mission are then compared with requirements from eight other missions, and the efforts compared to determine a return on investment (ROI) for using previous missions as a baseline. Utilizing the resulting UUV requirement cost versus ROI can serve as a starting point for future UUV program concept design.

The defense sector often develops systems to operate for at least 15 years, which can reach 40 or even 50 years. Those systems tend to be cheaper, more rapidly developed, and reliable when developed on product lines (PL). Product line architecture surges with potential to improve the acquisition process, resulting in a more rapid insertion of cost-effective warfighting capabilities. This thesis investigates the impact of the PL approach by analyzing the future generation of mine countermeasure (MCM) unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) architecture alternatives, employing a detailed reuse model based on the COPLIMO framework. The research integrates parametric cost modeling with model-based systems engineering (MBSE), feeding the existing baseline knowledge regarding PL architecture. Furthermore, this can improve systems acquisition processes, deliver more agile capability, and reduce total life cycle costs (LCC). The integration of models highlights significant differences among the architectural variations considered early in the acquisition process before substantial financial commitments. Early decisions determine most of the total LCC and establish a baseline for long-term system performance. Hence, the choice of favorable design alternatives is crucial to program success. The results demonstrate that up-front investments in product lines generate a significant return on investment (ROI)., Capitao-Tenente, Brazilian Navy, Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Acquisition initiatives within the Department of Defense (DOD) are becoming increasingly reliant on software. While the DOD has ample experience in estimating costs of hardware acquisition, expertise in estimating software acquisition costs is lacking. The objective of this capstone project is to summarize the current software cost estimating methods, analyze existing software cost estimating models, and suggest areas and methods for improvement. To accomplish this, surveys were conducted to gather program cost data, which was run through existing cost estimating models. From here, the outputs were compared to actual program costs. This established a baseline for the effectiveness of existing methods and guided suggestions for areas of improvement. The Software Resource Data Reports (SRDR) data used seemed to have spurious data reporting from at least one source, and the base cost estimation models were not found to be sufficiently accurate in our study. The capstone finds that calibrating the cost models to the data available improved those models dramatically. In all, the capstone recommends performing data realism checks upon SRDR submissions to ensure data accuracy and calibrating cost models for each contractor with the available data before using them to estimate DOD Acquisition costs., Civilian, Department of the Army, Civilian, Department of the Army, Civilian, Department of the Army, Civilian, Department of the Army, Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) accomplish a wide spectrum of missions ranging from generic to extremely specific. Although not all UUVs can accomplish all missions, there is significant replication of the requirements and the systems across the family of UUVs. The design process for UUVs balances operational requirements, design feasibility, expected performance, schedule, budget, and ultimate system and life-cycle costs. The U.S. Department of Defense does not have an established process for developing UUV Systems Engineering (SE) requirements. This results in duplicative development efforts adding unnecessary costs to UUV programs. This paper investigates the SE requirements and interfaces across various UUV mission spaces to establish complexity and reuse weights. A Constructive SE Cost Model (COSYSMO) is applied to determine the cost advantage to reuse SE requirements for UUV assets across different mission spaces to determine an overall SE effort. Requirements from the baseline mission are then compared with requirements from eight other missions, and the efforts compared to determine a return on investment (ROI) for using previous missions as a baseline. Utilizing the resulting UUV requirement cost versus ROI can serve as a starting point for future UUV program concept design., Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

The defense sector often develops systems to operate for at least 15 years, which can reach 40 or even 50 years. Those systems tend to be cheaper, more rapidly developed, and reliable when developed on product lines (PL). Product line architecture surges with potential to improve the acquisition process, resulting in a more rapid insertion of cost-effective warfighting capabilities. This thesis investigates the impact of the PL approach by analyzing the future generation of mine countermeasure (MCM) unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) architecture alternatives, employing a detailed reuse model based on the COPLIMO framework. The research integrates parametric cost modeling with model-based systems engineering (MBSE), feeding the existing baseline knowledge regarding PL architecture. Furthermore, this can improve systems acquisition processes, deliver more agile capability, and reduce total life cycle costs (LCC). The integration of models highlights significant differences among the architectural variations considered early in the acquisition process before substantial financial commitments. Early decisions determine most of the total LCC and establish a baseline for long-term system performance. Hence, the choice of favorable design alternatives is crucial to program success. The results demonstrate that up-front investments in product lines generate a significant return on investment (ROI).

The DoD’s new software acquisition pathway prioritizes speed of delivery, advocating agile software processes. Estimating the cost and schedule of agile software projects is critical at an early phase to establish baseline budgets and to select competitive bidders. The challenge is that common ag-ile sizing measures such as story points and user stories are not practical for early estimation as these are often reported after contract award in DoD. This study provides a set of parametric effort and schedule estimation models for agile projects using a sizing measure that is available before proposal evaluation based on data from 36 DoD agile projects. The results suggest that initial software requirements, defined as the sum of functions and external interfaces, is an effective sizing measure for early estimation of effort and schedule of agile projects. The models’ accuracy improves when application domain groups and peak staff are added as inputs.

The DoD’s new software acquisition pathway prioritizes speed of delivery, advocating agile software processes. Estimating the cost and schedule of agile software projects is critical at an early phase to establish baseline budgets and to select competitive bidders. The challenge is that common ag-ile sizing measures such as story points and user stories are not practical for early estimation as these are often reported after contract award in DoD. This study provides a set of parametric effort and schedule estimation models for agile projects using a sizing measure that is available before proposal evaluation based on data from 36 DoD agile projects. The results suggest that initial software requirements, defined as the sum of functions and external interfaces, is an effective sizing measure for early estimation of effort and schedule of agile projects. The models’ accuracy improves when application domain groups and peak staff are added as inputs.

The DoD’s new software acquisition pathway prioritizes speed of delivery, advocating agile software processes. Estimating the cost and schedule of agile software projects is critical at an early phase to establish baseline budgets and to select competitive bidders. The challenge is that common ag-ile sizing measures such as story points and user stories are not practical for early estimation as these are often reported after contract award in DoD. This study provides a set of parametric effort and schedule estimation models for agile projects using a sizing measure that is available before proposal evaluation based on data from 36 DoD agile projects. The results suggest that initial software requirements, defined as the sum of functions and external interfaces, is an effective sizing measure for early estimation of effort and schedule of agile projects. The models’ accuracy improves when application domain groups and peak staff are added as inputs.

This research investigated the systems and cost-effectiveness of unmanned system product lines to improve both the acquisition processes and warfighter's capabilities. Historically defined as the probability that a system can successfully meet an operational demand within a given time when operated under specified conditions, system effectiveness is the ability of a system to do its intended job. Traditionally applied to a single system acquiring DoD systems with overlapping capabilities are most economically acquired as integrated product lines. Therefore, more relevant measures are needed to evaluate product lines and similar systems of systems. Cost-effectiveness measures a system in terms of the cost of system effectiveness and its ability to fulfill the intended mission and total lifecycle cost (LCC). The LCC can be expressed in different ways depending upon specific mission or system parameters under evaluation. The "constructive product line investment model framework" (COPLIMO) applies to performing product line cost estimation and investment analysis. Initially oriented for software product line development, it is now a general framework for system product lines consisting of software, hardware, or combined elements. The Cost model is adaptable for different product types, processes, and estimation relationships necessary to cover unmanned systems. The cost model accomplishes this by employing product-specific parametric cost models to improve estimation fidelity versus using average assumptions. The overall model sums the software and hardware component estimates derived from their detailed cost models. The results of a student capstone report are the focal point of the paper.

A Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach has been developed at the Naval Postgraduate School that integrates parametric cost and product modeling methods for economic trade-off analysis of system product lines. The research assesses the economic consequences of DoD product line options and has been refining a framework for others to use and adapt. This report provides details of the methodology and its application to several empirical case studies. The modeling framework includes a reference architecture and cost model for a general combat system product line that is extensible to other DoD and government domains. It has been applied to assess the economics of Navy combat system product line architecture approaches in coordinated case studies. The case studies were performed for a three-tier cruise missile system, the Aegis ship software product line, and an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) cross-domain product line architecture for air, surface, and sub-surface applications. An overall business case analysis for DoD product line practices was performed synthesizing the case studies with recommendations generated.

Estimating the cost and schedule of agile software projects is critical at an early phase to establish baseline budgets and schedules for the selection of competitive bidders. The challenge is that common agile sizing measures such as story points and user stories are not practical for early estimation as these are often reported after contract award in DoD. This study provides a set of effort and schedule estimation models for agile projects using a sizing measure that is available before proposal evaluation based on data from 36 DoD agile projects. The results suggest that initial software requirements, defined as the sum of functions and external interfaces, is an effective sizing measure for early estimation of effort and schedule of agile projects. The models’ accuracy improves when application domain groups and peak staff are added as inputs.

This dissertation presents a methodology to derive inherent behavior patterns in system-of-systems architectures. When considering the possibility of not only the intended behaviors of a system but also the alternative, unintended behaviors of the system, the developer needs to evaluate hundreds of possible outcomes, even for a simple model. This set of outcomes grows to tens of thousands for a reasonably complex model, driving the need for some means of systematic analysis that ensures the evaluation of all possibilities. This dissertation outlines a methodology that enables the developer to describe the behaviors of a particular system; define the interaction of the system with other systems, users, and the environment; add constraints to the model; derive patterns from the set of possible outcomes; analyze and interpret the results; and re-use the model for other problems of interest. The methodology employs the Monterey Phoenix behavior modeling concepts and tools as a light-weight, formal method. The dissertation details a cross-domain example that demonstrates the methodology and outlines multiple applications, serving as verification of the approach., http://archive.org/details/identificationof1094564902, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

This dissertation presents a methodology to derive inherent behavior patterns in system-of-systems architectures. When considering the possibility of not only the intended behaviors of a system but also the alternative, unintended behaviors of the system, the developer needs to evaluate hundreds of possible outcomes, even for a simple model. This set of outcomes grows to tens of thousands for a reasonably complex model, driving the need for some means of systematic analysis that ensures the evaluation of all possibilities. This dissertation outlines a methodology that enables the developer to describe the behaviors of a particular system; define the interaction of the system with other systems, users, and the environment; add constraints to the model; derive patterns from the set of possible outcomes; analyze and interpret the results; and re-use the model for other problems of interest. The methodology employs the Monterey Phoenix behavior modeling concepts and tools as a light-weight, formal method. The dissertation details a cross-domain example that demonstrates the methodology and outlines multiple applications, serving as verification of the approach.

Navy combat systems are currently ship class dependent and are acquired as stovepipes. There exist economic consequences to this approach considering various components on the combat system types share commonality. This part of the research will address cross-domain applicability of the antisubmarine warfare (ASW) combat system. This research will include the product line potential for ASW systems to include air, surface, and subsurface applications—light airborne multipurpose system (LAMPS) MK III (SH-60 Helicopters), AN/BYG-1 (Virginia class), SQQ-89 (FFG 7, DDG 51, and CG 47 class). Commonality is assessed for ASW-capable systems to determine the product line approach suitable for the reduction of cost, increase in mission effectiveness, and generation of rapidly deployable combat systems. The product line investigation encompasses air, surface, and subsurface systems for applicability across the domain to establish variations points based on referenced architecture. Product line models provide analysis of the economic consequences of alternative system acquisition approaches. Constructive Product Line Investment Models (COPLIMO) are utilized, with a three-pronged strategy, for system and software to explore numerous architectural possibilities for the derived combat systems. High return on investment were yielded for an adapted ASW system for “most likely” scenarios for both system and software.

Navy combat systems are currently ship class dependent and are acquired as stovepipes. There exist economic consequences to this approach considering various components on the combat system types share commonality. This part of the research will address cross-domain applicability of the antisubmarine warfare (ASW) combat system. This research will include the product line potential for ASW systems to include air, surface, and subsurface applications—light airborne multipurpose system (LAMPS) MK III (SH-60 Helicopters), AN/BYG-1 (Virginia class), SQQ-89 (FFG 7, DDG 51, and CG 47 class). Commonality is assessed for ASW-capable systems to determine the product line approach suitable for the reduction of cost, increase in mission effectiveness, and generation of rapidly deployable combat systems. The product line investigation encompasses air, surface, and subsurface systems for applicability across the domain to establish variations points based on referenced architecture. Product line models provide analysis of the economic consequences of alternative system acquisition approaches. Constructive Product Line Investment Models (COPLIMO) are utilized, with a three-pronged strategy, for system and software to explore numerous architectural possibilities for the derived combat systems. High return on investment were yielded for an adapted ASW system for “most likely” scenarios for both system and software., http://archive.org/details/navalaswcombatsy1094562720, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, NUWC Newport, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Navy combat systems are ship class dependent and, until recently, were acquired as stovepipes. The disaggregated stovepipe acquisition method leads to suboptimal designs and exorbitant costs throughout the system’s lifecycle. A product line approach could reduce costs, increase mission effectiveness, and enable more rapid deployment across the Navy and rest of the Department of Defense. Existing software product line cost models are oversimplified to model per-product characteristics and savings within a product line across the lifecycle of a system. Improving these existing cost models will better support decision making for future acquisitions. By applying existing research and leveraging the Constructive Product Line Investment Model, this work estimates product line savings and return on investment for the AEGIS combat system product. The AEGIS common source library is a proven standard for an evolving product line architecture to meet Navy combat systems requirements and has proven cost savings since its inception. This research provides a methodology and cost model framework for product line decisions while extending it for the AEGIS combat system case study., http://archive.org/details/navalcombatsyste1094562854, Lieutenant, United States Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Navy combat systems are ship class dependent and, until recently, were acquired as stovepipes. The disaggregated stovepipe acquisition method leads to suboptimal designs and exorbitant costs throughout the system’s lifecycle. A product line approach could reduce costs, increase mission effectiveness, and enable more rapid deployment across the Navy and rest of the Department of Defense. Existing software product line cost models are oversimplified to model per-product characteristics and savings within a product line across the lifecycle of a system. Improving these existing cost models will better support decision making for future acquisitions. By applying existing research and leveraging the Constructive Product Line Investment Model, this work estimates product line savings and return on investment for the AEGIS combat system product. The AEGIS common source library is a proven standard for an evolving product line architecture to meet Navy combat systems requirements and has proven cost savings since its inception. This research provides a methodology and cost model framework for product line decisions while extending it for the AEGIS combat system case study.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand disparate organizational standard operating procedures (SOPs) covering agile software development and supporting functions, including business and technical feasibility analysis, contracts development, and personnel assessment. On the basis of SOP analysis, we developed a discrete-event software process simulation model of the architecture using Lifecycle Modeling Language (LML) action diagrams with the Model-Based Systems Engineering tool Innoslate. The action diagrams unify the SOPs to support both process architecture development and the ability to simulate actions independently or as a whole. The architecture illustrates that, in addition to the core function of software design and development, there are supporting functions that are necessary to successfully execute agile software development. The simulation model also serves as an accurate cost estimator for sprints. Historical data was available to calibrate model parameters for activity effort, staffing, and labor rates. The results of Monte Carlo simulations to forecast effort and cost for software sprints showed a high degree of accuracy against actuals. It is a viable alternative to other estimation methods and also provides risk assessment. The process model can be further calibrated and dynamically extended to support agile software development.

Current U.S. Navy combat system suites are ship class dependent. There are a variety of configurations that include sensors, weapons, and system interfaces to accomplish similar goals. The Navy Surface Warfare Center recommends developing combat system architectures utilizing reusable product line components. This recommendation is accomplished by applying model-based systems engineering and product line engineering to develop a combat system architecture with planned reuse of system components. Current U.S. Navy and European combat systems are reviewed as an introduction to the architecture and components of operational systems. Conducting functional decomposition and identifying commonalities of the reviewed combat systems allow for development of a system architecture following the Hatley-Pirbhai modeling framework. The system architecture helps identify system variability, which, in turn, is used to generate orthogonal variability models that are used to design the combat system product line. A product line orthogonal variability model features packaged variants for three proposed combat system tiers representing scalable capabilities. The benefits of a product line engineering approach are validated by a system-level Constructive Product Line Investment Model. This research provides a methodology and cost modeling tool for future combat system design as well as background for further research in combat system product line engineering.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand disparate organizational standard operating procedures (SOPs) covering agile software development and supporting functions, including business and technical feasibility analysis, contracts development, and personnel assessment. On the basis of SOP analysis, we developed a discrete-event software process simulation model of the architecture using Lifecycle Modeling Language (LML) action diagrams with the Model-Based Systems Engineering tool Innoslate. The action diagrams unify the SOPs to support both process architecture development and the ability to simulate actions independently or as a whole. The architecture illustrates that, in addition to the core function of software design and development, there are supporting functions that are necessary to successfully execute agile software development. The simulation model also serves as an accurate cost estimator for sprints. Historical data was available to calibrate model parameters for activity effort, staffing, and labor rates. The results of Monte Carlo simulations to forecast effort and cost for software sprints showed a high degree of accuracy against actuals. It is a viable alternative to other estimation methods and also provides risk assessment. The process model can be further calibrated and dynamically extended to support agile software development., http://archive.org/details/aprocessarchitec1094560347, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Civilian, Department of the Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Current U.S. Navy combat system suites are ship class dependent. There are a variety of configurations that include sensors, weapons, and system interfaces to accomplish similar goals. The Navy Surface Warfare Center recommends developing combat system architectures utilizing reusable product line components. This recommendation is accomplished by applying model-based systems engineering and product line engineering to develop a combat system architecture with planned reuse of system components. Current U.S. Navy and European combat systems are reviewed as an introduction to the architecture and components of operational systems. Conducting functional decomposition and identifying commonalities of the reviewed combat systems allow for development of a system architecture following the Hatley-Pirbhai modeling framework. The system architecture helps identify system variability, which, in turn, is used to generate orthogonal variability models that are used to design the combat system product line. A product line orthogonal variability model features packaged variants for three proposed combat system tiers representing scalable capabilities. The benefits of a product line engineering approach are validated by a system-level Constructive Product Line Investment Model. This research provides a methodology and cost modeling tool for future combat system design as well as background for further research in combat system product line engineering., http://archive.org/details/utilizingamodelb1094559675, Lieutenant, United States Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand disparate organizational standard operating procedures (SOPs) covering agile software development and supporting functions, including business and technical feasibility analysis, contracts development, and personnel assessment. On the basis of SOP analysis, we developed a discrete-event software process simulation model of the architecture using Lifecycle Modeling Language (LML) action diagrams with the Model-Based Systems Engineering tool Innoslate. The action diagrams unify the SOPs to support both process architecture development and the ability to simulate actions independently or as a whole. The architecture illustrates that, in addition to the core function of software design and development, there are supporting functions that are necessary to successfully execute agile software development. The simulation model also serves as an accurate cost estimator for sprints. Historical data was available to calibrate model parameters for activity effort, staffing, and labor rates. The results of Monte Carlo simulations to forecast effort and cost for software sprints showed a high degree of accuracy against actuals. It is a viable alternative to other estimation methods and also provides risk assessment. The process model can be further calibrated and dynamically extended to support agile software development.

Project Summary: Software effort estimates are necessary and critical at an early phase for decision makers to establish initial budgets, and in a government context to select the most competitive bidder for a contract. The challenge is that estimated software requirements is the only size information available at this stage, compounded with the newly increasing adoption of agile processes in the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD). The objectives are to improve cost estimation by investigating available sizing measures, and providing practical effort estimation models for agile software development projects during the contract bidding phase or earlier. This analysis explores the effects of independent variables for product size, peak staff, and domain on effort. The empirical data for model calibration is from 20 industrial projects completed recently for the US DoD, among a larger dataset of recent projects using other lifecycle processes. Statistical results showed that initial software requirements is a valid size metric for estimating agile software development effort. Prediction accuracy improves when peak staff and domain are added as inputs to the cost models. It is concluded that these models may be used for estimates of agile projects, and evaluating software development contract cost proposals with inputs available during the bidding phase or earlier.

Background: Software effort estimates are necessary and critical at an early phase for decision makers to establish initial budgets, and in a government context to select the most competitive bidder for a contract. The challenge is that estimated software requirements is the only size information available at this stage, compounded with the newly increasing adoption of agile processes in the US DoD. Aims: The objectives are to improve cost estimation by investigating available sizing measures, and providing practical effort estimation models for agile software development projects during the contract bidding phase or earlier. Method: The analysis explores the effects of independent variables for product size, peak staff, and domain on effort. The empirical data for model calibration is from 20 industrial projects completed recently for the US DoD, among a larger dataset of recent projects using other lifecycle processes. Results: Statistical results showed that initial software requirements is a valid size metric for estimating agile software development effort. Prediction accuracy improves when peak staff and domain are added as inputs to the cost models. Conclusion: These models may be used for estimates of agile projects, and evaluating software development contract cost proposals with inputs available during the bidding phase or earlier.

Modeling and simulation can help improve lawmaking processes. System dynamics is a simulation methodology for modeling continuous systems that provides a rich and integrative framework for investigating lawmaking process phenomena and inter-relationships from a holistic perspective. Structures for modeling these processes are provided as reusable building blocks. These structures and their behaviors are process patterns that frequently occur. Examples are shown assembling these recurring structures into larger models demonstrating behavior patterns of lawmaking processes including feedback loops. The behaviors are visualized as process trends over time. This paper overviews: 1) basic system dynamics elements and their applied instances in lawmaking, 2) generic flow processes which are small microstructures comprised of a few elements serving as modeling molecules with characteristic behaviors, 3) infrastructures composed of several microstructures producing more complex behaviors, 4) flow chains which are infrastructures consisting of a sequence of levels and rates (stocks and flows) that are model portion backbones, and 5) introductory examples of lawmaking process structures. Even small system dynamics models have been shown useful for understanding complex public policy issues, and thus well suited to assess specific laws and/or aspects of local, national and international lawmaking processes. The structures and applied examples are provided as open source models for the community to incorporate, adapt and apply for lawmaking.

This research explores the integration of the Constructive Systems Engineering Cost Model (COSYSMO) into early modeling efforts for the Department of Defense (DOD). Initial acquisition decisions influence the analysis and design of systems engineers, who face an increasingly complex and dynamic environment with significant impact on system life-cycle decisions and cost. This work utilizes a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach and the systems modeling language (SysML) to highlight the sharing of system model data with COSYSMO to provide an estimate of systems engineering costs. The document highlights the proposed methods compliance to cost estimation techniques, adherence and support to pre-Milestone A requirements of the DOD acquisitions process, and links to the Department of Defense Architectural Framework (DODAF). Application and documentation of the author's methods include a commonly used humanitarian aid effort scenario that incorporates traditional systems functional analysis of a single water distiller. The work's results demonstrate an ability for automated and semi-automated integration with COSYSMO from the system model in a web-based tool, conclude with challenges associated with external cost model integration, and suggest future areas of continued refinement and extensions. A starting point for an ensemble of models to enhance DOD cost estimation practices results from the techniques.

Through the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) completed a study in 1992 where the NSRP identified the top-level parameters that have an effect on the cost of naval shipbuilding. These parameters, identified in the study Evaluating the Producibility of Ship Design Alternatives, are arrangements, simplicity, material, standardization and fabrication requirements. Since 2011, the Budget Control Act has created a climate wherein cost reductions dominate the program manager’s decision-making process. Consequently, it is important for submarine program managers to understand the limitations of submarine cost construction estimates. In Density as a Cost Driver in Naval Submarine Design and Procurement, a 2008 Naval Postgraduate School thesis, Benjamin P. Grant suggests the potential of applying a modular outfitting density factor into the submarine cost estimating process. This thesis investigates the arrangement aspect of the NSRP study using outfitting density, how tightly the submarine’s components are installed within a determined volume, and the correlation on production man-hours used to construct the submarine. The results of this study evaluate outfitting density and construction costs of historical submarines and find a positive correlation to aid cost estimators in determining if an outfitting density-adjusted cost estimating relationship (CER) is applicable for preparing submarine construction cost estimates.

A number of Defense Department initiatives focus on how to engineer better systems that directly influence software architecture, including Open Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, and Joint Information Enterprise. Additionally, the Department of Defense (DOD) mandates moving applications to consolidated datacenters and cloud computing. When examined from an application development perspective, the DOD lacks a common approach for incorporating new technology or developing software-intensive systems that will be included in the proposed consolidated datacenters and cloud computing. This thesis will outline an architectural framework incorporating a common approach for software development based on a standard approach. The result of this research will be a high-level guide that defines a methodology that incorporates architectural frameworks, and aligns with high-level policies and guidance to ensure more commonality and structure for software programs. This thesis shows how a common methodology incorporating commercial technology into defense systems can establish a common framework for application and technology development. This is not a simple problem to solve, but, if not addressed, DOD application development will fall further behind the commercial market. Without clear direction to the acquisition community on how to build applications, there will be a lack of alignment between strategic goals and future technology implementation.

Software Process Simulation (SPS) has been evolving over the past two decades after being introduced to the software engineering community in the 1980s. At that time the SPS technology attracted a great deal of interest from both academics and practitioners in the software process community – even to the extent of being one of the recommended techniques for achieving the quantitative modeling KPA for CMMI Level 4. However, in recent years, the growth of SPS seems to have slowed along with the number of reported applications in industry. This article summarizes the special panel during ICSSP 2012 whose goal was to assess whether this technology remains applicable to today’s software engineering projects and challenges and point out the most beneficial opportunities for future research and industry application.

This capstone report describes the expected mine countermeasures (MCM) performance of the Avenger class MCM ship (MCM 1), landing helicopter deck (LHD) support ship, and MH-53E helicopter legacy systems and Increment 1 of the littoral combat ship (LCS) and MH-60S helicopter future systems. The study focused on two measures of effec-tiveness (MOEs): area coverage rate sustained (ACRS) and percent clearance of mines. The systems engineering (SE) approach used to address stakeholder needs identified foundational requirements and developed functional and physi-cal architectures for simulation in conducting the comparative technical analysis. A design of experiments (DOE) methodology was used to determine which factors have the greatest influence on the MOEs. The significant factors’ values were varied to develop a set of recommended improvements to the future MCM systems. The study found that maintaining a constant search speed of 10 knots, improving the stream and recover time to 15 minutes, and improving the sortie time to 24 hours for the remote minehunting system (RMS) would provide a future ACRS performance greater than that provided by the legacy systems. When factoring in risk and operating and sustainment (O&S) costs, the future capability and recommended improvements provide better performance per cost than the legacy capability.

In today’s austere fiscal environment the United States Marine Corps (USMC) seeks to increase overall mission effectiveness, while maintaining or improving combat effectiveness, through efficient energy use in the battle space. This capstone project examined operational energy efficiencies through the specification, modeling, and data analysis associated with force scale alternatives of a Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force (SPMAGTF) unit operating in the West Africa Area of Responsibility (AOR). A Title 10 war games evolution was elaborated to support a robust operational concept. A Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach was utilized to support the Analysis of Alternatives (AoA). Agent Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS) provided the foundation to explore autonomous battle space activity and its relationship to operational energy. Design of Experiments (DOE) principles were used to specify force scale levels suitable for examination of the tradespace. The research objectively sought to understand the relationship between force scale, energy use, and mission effectiveness. Results support findings regarding key energy drivers, energy dependencies across the combat elements of the battle space, economies of scale, and net-centricity. The findings inform evaluation of force application doctrine in small land battle engagements, and provide modeling artifacts for future research efforts.

Software process simulation (SPS) has been evolving over the past two decades after being introduced to the software engineering community in the 1980s. At that time the SPS technology attracted a great deal of interest from both academics and practitioners in the software process community—even to the extent of being one of the recommended techniques for achieving multiple Key Process Areas of Level 4 of the Capability Maturity Model Integration. However, in recent years, the growth of SPS seems to have slowed along with the number of reported applications in industry. This article summarizes the special panel that was held during ICSSP 2012 whose goals were to assess whether this technology remains applicable to today's software engineering projects and challenges and to point out the most beneficial opportunities for future research and industry application.

Static representations of development processes provide a basis for communication and coordination of work, as well as for planning work. However, they do not provide any information about the actual behavior of a project, including the effects of staffing decisions, quality-inducing activities, delays, resource contentions, and so forth. Software process simulation (SPS) has demonstrated the capability for providing insight to the dynamics of software projects and supporting project management decisions. This tutorial is a SPS introduction that emphasizes practical approaches to modeling and simulation for both researchers and practitioners. We will discuss modeling and simulation, types of simulation, an historical overview of SPS, the disciplines that contribute to successful SPS work, modeling constructs commonly used to represent software development dynamics, and methods for conducting a SPS project.

In the last few decades, system contexts have multiplied, and the speed of change in both needs and solutions has accelerated. This has led to an inherent loss of determinism requirements are less tangible, more evolving, and sometimes emergent, and systems are both complex and constantly adapting. Engineering principles involving agility and leanness have been adopted to address non-determinism in software systems. This paper examines one of those approaches, kanban (pull) scheduling techniques, to determine its applicability to systems and software engineering in a rapid response environment. The paper describes work in progress defining a general systems engineering kanban approach, a specific kanban process for rapid response, and the validation of that process via simulation.

Systems engineering is often ineffective in development environments where large, complex, brownfield systems of systems are evolved through parallel development of new capabilities in response to external, time-sensitive requirements. This paper defines a conceptual framework to improve that effectiveness and better integrate the systems engineering and software engineering processes. The framework is based on a services approach to systems engineering and the use of kanban techniques to schedule scarce enterprise systems engineering resources across multiple related systems and software development projects. The framework also addresses the differing value of work items to multiple stakeholders in the scheduling and coordination processes. Models and simulations are being used to capture, refine and validate the framework prior to in vivo experimentation., International Conference on the Software Process (ICSSP), Zurich, Switzerland, 2-3 June 2012. U.s. Government or Federal Rights license

Effective application of systems engineering in rapid response environments has been difficult, particularly those where large, complex brownfield systems or systems of systems exist and are constantly being updated with both short and long term software enhancements. This paper proposes a general case for solving this problem by combining a services approach to systems engineering with a kanban-based scheduling system. It provides the basis for validating the approach with agent-based simulations., 6th Annual IEEE Systems Conference (SysCon) Vancouver, Canada, 19-22 March 2012.

Systems engineering processes using pull scheduling methods (kanban) are being evaluated with hybrid modeling and simulation. We are assessing integrated systems and software engineering at the enterprise level, where rapid response software development projects incrementally evolve capabilities of existing systems and/or systems of systems. A kanban-based scheduling system was defined and implemented with connected discrete, continuous and agent-based models. We are simulating the process performance vs. traditional methods of sharing systems engineering services across projects, and whether the overall value of the systems of systems over time is increased., International Conference on the Software Process (ICSSP), Zurich, Switzerland, 2-3 June 2012.

This paper discusses a model for developing a master s degree curriculum for systems engineering professionals. The model provides guidelines and recommendations that can be used for developing a new program or for modifying an existing program. The model was developed as part of the BKCASE (Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering) project to develop a guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) and a Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering (GRCSE). This paper describes the content of the SEBoK used to drive the core body of knowledge in a systems engineering program, and discusses the GRCSE purpose, organization, content, development process, and implementation., Presented at the 6th IEEE Systems Conference (SysCon) held in Vancouver, Canada on 19-22 Mar 2012. Prepared in collaboration with the Department of Electrical, Computer, Software, and Systems Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, and the School of Systems and Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.

Navy acquisition activities frequently produce combat system architectures based on existing systems rather than stakeholder requirements. This approach limits software component reuse which, in turn, limits potential application to other platforms. The objective of this Capstone project was to develop a methodology for creating complex combat system architectures that emphasize the use of Software Product Lines (SPLs), requirements traceability, integrated supportability and Modeling and Simulation (M&S) early and throughout the approach. To address this objective, an integrated methodology that utilizes Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to create open, supportable combat system architectures was developed. The methodology was evaluated by applying it to a naval surface combatant Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) mission area. Application of the methodology led to the following major findings: (1) Proven systems engineering practices, languages and tools can be integrated with the MBSE approach for developing complex architectures, (2) Creation of domain centered SPLs facilitates planned reuse and allows for assessment to candidate architectures, (3) Requirements traceability can be achieved by using a combination of modeling languages and tools, (4) M&S application can extend beyond operational scenarios to address life cycle cost, and (5) Engineers and logisticians can effectively use MBSE to integrate supportability into design. Overall, this project demonstrated the benefits of an MBSE approach tailored to developing affordable and supportable combat system architectures that meet mission requirements., http://archive.org/details/applicationofmod109456938

Navy acquisition activities frequently produce combat system architectures based on existing systems rather than stakeholder requirements. This approach limits software component reuse which, in turn, limits potential application to other platforms. The objective of this Capstone project was to develop a methodology for creating complex combat system architectures that emphasize the use of Software Product Lines (SPLs), requirements traceability, integrated supportability and Modeling and Simulation (M&S) early and throughout the approach. To address this objective, an integrated methodology that utilizes Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to create open, supportable combat system architectures was developed. The methodology was evaluated by applying it to a naval surface combatant Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) mission area. Application of the methodology led to the following major findings: (1) Proven systems engineering practices, languages and tools can be integrated with the MBSE approach for developing complex architectures, (2) Creation of domain centered SPLs facilitates planned reuse and allows for assessment to candidate architectures, (3) Requirements traceability can be achieved by using a combination of modeling languages and tools, (4) M&S application can extend beyond operational scenarios to address life cycle cost, and (5) Engineers and logisticians can effectively use MBSE to integrate supportability into design. Overall, this project demonstrated the benefits of an MBSE approach tailored to developing affordable and supportable combat system architectures that meet mission requirements., http://archive.org/details/applicationofmod109456938

The chapter provides possible directions for the wider application of the systems approach to information systems development. Potential improvement of software development practices is linked by some leading experts to the application of more systemic ideas. However, the current state of the practice in software engineering and information systems development shows the urgent need for improvement through greater application of systems thinking.

Effective application of systems engineering in rapid response environments has been difficult, particularly those where large, complex brownfield systems or systems of systems exist and are constantly being updated with both short and long term software enhancements. This paper proposes a general case for solving this problem by combining a services approach to systems engineering with a kanban-based scheduling system. It provides the basis for validating the approach with agent-based simulations.

Systems engineering is often ineffective in development environments where large, complex, brownfield systems of systems are evolved through parallel development of new capabilities in response to external, time-sensitive requirements. This paper defines a conceptual framework to improve that effectiveness and better integrate the systems engineering and software engineering processes. The framework is based on a services approach to systems engineering and the use of kanban techniques to schedule scarce enterprise systems engineering resources across multiple related systems and software development projects. The framework also addresses the differing value of work items to multiple stakeholders in the scheduling and coordination processes. Models and simulations are being used to capture, refine and validate the framework prior to in vivo experimentation.