Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions

Transcription

1 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions Accident Adaptability Agility Ambiguity Analogy Architecture Assumption Augmented Reality Autonomous Vehicle Belief State Cloud Computing An undesirable, unintended event that produces an economic loss and/or a loss of function and/or a loss of human lives Ability of a system to internally change to continue to fit within a changing environment; includes self-modification and self-organization Ability of a system to rapidly and cost-effectively undergo change; flexibility is a prerequisite to agility Potentially associated with several possible meanings or interpretations A comparison between two entities on the basis of their structure for purpose of understanding, learning, explanation, or clarification A formal description and representation of a system, orga nized in a way that enables reasoning about the structure, behavior, and interfaces in a system Something that is accepted as true or certain to happen, without proof or evidence A live (direct or indirect) view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computergenerated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, or GPS data A vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input for extended durations Belief in what the state of a partially observable system is; a term associated with POMDP and other probabilistic modeling approaches The use of a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server, or a personal computer Springer International Publishing AG 2018 A.M. Madni, Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering, DOI /

2 206 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions Complex System A system in which the interactions, interconnections, or interdependencies among components make it difficult to understand, model, design, manage, and change the system and predict its behavior Concept of Operations A user-oriented document (occasionally supplemented with a prototype) that describes the characteristics of an envisioned system from a user s perspective. A CONOPS also describes the mission, operational setting, and objectives from the perspective of the different stakeholders in quantitative and qualitative terms Contract A formal, assert-guarantee approach for requirements engineering that is also used for virtual integration and deployment; used in both software and systems engineering Contract-Based Design Crowdsourcing Cyber-Physical Systems Decomposition Decision Theory Disciplinary Convergence Disruptive Collaboration A process-neutral approach that qualifies each design step with regard to system integration. Therefore, it is a compliant with various SE process models, including the V model The activity of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially an online community, rather than from traditional services (i.e., employers, suppliers) Engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless deep integration of computational algorithms and physical components A divide-and-conquer approach that breaks down a system into its components to facilitate analysis conducted at the functional, logical, and physical levels of the decomposition hierarchy A body of knowledge and related deterministic and probabilistic techniques of different degrees of formality designed to help decision makers choose from an available set of alternatives in light of their possible consequences. Decision theory applies to conditions of certainty, uncertainty, and risk. Decision theory is beginning to draw on other disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, and systems thinking The merging of humanities ability to expand on and theorize with computer and information science s ability to design efficiently and make meaning implicit in the design and code Working together remotely as a team, sharing data and partial solutions through online and mobile networks to create shared value. The collaborators tend to be known to each other

3 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions 207 Distributed Collaboration Effectiveness Efficiency Elegant Design Emergence Enterprise Evolvability Experiential (User) Interface Extensibility Flexibility Formal Methods Functions Heuristics Innovation Integration The convergence of distributed collaboration, social media, and crowdsourcing to expand the universe of contributors to problems in need of solutions; changes the definition and collaborators Ratio of performance of functions achieved and totality of functions and performance desired Ratio of performance of functions achieved and resources used A design that does away with having to make performance and capability limiting trade-offs among desired system characteristics; a design that offers the requisite functionality with minimum structural complexity A system-level property that is the result of latent system properties and behaviors that are discovered, those that show up spontaneously over time and space, and those that arise as a result of interactions with other systems and the environment A value-generating, profit-making organization that returns value to all stakeholders as a result of interactions and contributions of its members Ability of a system to readily change with the emergence of new needs, requirements, and technologies over time A user interface in which the experiences are specifically created by the UI designer to fully engage users using a variety of multisensory cues and metaphors Degree to which a system or its components can be extended to a higher level of abstraction or to introduce a new capability Ability of a system to be changed in specific dimensions in a variety of ways System design techniques that use rigorously specified mathematical models to verify a complex system s properties in a more thorough manner than empirical testing A specified or desired system behavior that is repeatable and that is associated directly or indirectly with the stated purpose of the system A mental shortcut or rule of thumb that enables rapid solution of complex problems most of the time The translation of a novel idea or invention into a good or service that creates value for which customers are willing to pay Actively associated with making required system components work together, to satisfy system requirements

4 208 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions Interconnection Interaction Interdependence Interdisciplinary Interface Internet of Things Interoperability Interactive Storytelling Lateral Thinking Learning Curves Learning Organization Metaphor Modularity Module Model-Based Systems Engineering Model-Based Storytelling Relationship between physical or abstract entities with the connection serving as pathway for interaction A property of entities that exchanges information, energy, or matter that crates or contributes to their independence Relationship between any two entities that cannot exist or operate without the other Combining or involving two or more disciplines or fields of study to respond to needs that cannot be addressed solely by a single discipline The point where two systems, people, and organizations interact with one another Smart connected devices and structure with embedded algorithms, software, sensors, actuators, and with network connectivity that allows these objects to collect and exchange data; an enabler of cyber-physical systems Ability of different IT systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and exploit the exchanged information A form of digital entertainment in which the storyline is not predetermined and can be shaped by users as they interact with elements in the story A mental activity to generating options and solving problems that employs nontraditional, indirect horizontal thinking instead of the vertical or logical thinking employed in traditional problem solving A graphical depiction of the increasing in learning (vertical axis) with experience (horizontal axis) An organization that acquires knowledge at all levels to accelerate innovation to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing global business landscape A figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two unrelated concepts that share some common characteristics Degree to which system components can be designed, built, operated, and swapped without impacting other components A part of a system that is built to have minimal and standardized interaction with the rest of the system A computer-supported engineering approach that represents a shift from document-centric to model-centric system development The mapping of system models to virtual worlds in which system stories are interactively executed by stakeholders

5 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions 209 Operations Research Optimization Option Generation Partially Observable Markov Decision Process Platform Quality Attributes Query Reformulation Repurposing Resilience Return on Learning A theoretically grounded, formal approach to executing decision-making that harnesses methods from system modeling, problem formulation, mathematical modeling, and system modeling An analytic approach for maximizing the performance of a system subject to constraints A central activity in decision-making concerned with the production of alternatives (known, newly created) using a variety of psychological principles such as constraint relaxation and lateral thinking A generalization of a Markov decision process that models an agent s decision process in which system dynamics are determined by the MDP, but the agent cannot directly observe the underlying state. Therefore, the agent maintains a probability distribution over the set of possible states, based on the set of observables and observation probabilities, variety of real-world problems. Well suited for robot navigation process and planning under uncertainty A business strategy that relies on network effects and pull. It leverages three transformative technologies: cloud, social, and mobile. The cloud provides a global infrastructure for production of social networks which connect people globally and maintain their identity online. Mobile allows connection to this global infrastructure anytime, anywhere. The result is a globally accessible network of entrepreneurs, producers, and consumers who are available to create business, create content, and sell and purchase goods and services System properties associated with nonfunctional requi rements; examples are maintainability, testability, and flexibility A strategy for refraining how a question is asked to illuminate new perspectives about a problem/system. This strategy is effective for requirements definition in system development The activity associated with adapting a product for a new purpose or to satisfy a different need Ability of a system to absorb and adapt to disturbance, description, or change that falls outside the base adaptive mechanisms/model defined in the system. This definition distinguishes resilience from adaptability, which is the ability to absorb or adjust to perturbations (i.e., disturbance, disruption, or change) The benefit resulting from investments in a portfolio of learning/training strategies. The benefits are in the form of time to competency and rate of workforce increase

6 210 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions Reuse Risk Robustness Scalability Science Fiction Prototyping SCO SCORM Social Network Sociotechnical Systems System System of Systems Systems Architecting The activity associated with repeated use or application of the same module or component in different functions of a system, in different systems, or at different times in the same system The product of the likelihood of an accident or loss event and the severity of the accident or less event Ability to sustain performance under a variety of perturbations (internal or external) Ability of a system to maintain performance, function, and quality attributes with an increase in scale without a corresponding increase in system s complexity; does not include an increase in scope usually The use of science fiction to describe and explore the implications of futuristic technologies and the social structures enabled by them A launchable learning object that communicates with the run-time environment that launched it; can be purposed for both learning and performance support A collection of standards and specification for e-learning; defines communications between client side content and the learning management system ( run-time environment ) A social structure made up of a set of actors (i.e., individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics A complex system comprising human and machine elements in which social and management dimensions are significant, and the interactions among the elements produce value for the stakeholders A set of interacting components with a defined purpose or behavior A predefined or dynamic assembly of dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities to create a new system with capabilities beyond the sum of capabilities of the individual systems An integrative, trade-offs-driven process for creating highlevel conceptual structure, interfaces, and behaviors of a system that conforms to standards and interface protocols in satisfying customer and stakeholder requirements

7 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions 211 System Architecture Systems Engineering System Dynamics System Modeling Systems Thinking Swarm Technological Convergence Traceability Trade-off Trade-off Analysis Uncertainty Utility Validation A conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and other perspectives of a system An interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. Successful systems must satisfy the needs of their customers, users, and other stakeholders An approach to modeling complex systems in the social sciences and management that employs network of nodes and feedback relationships among them Vocabularies, symbols, rules, and representations (behavior, structure) that make use of vocabularies, symbols, and each of the purposes of displaying and predicting systems structure and behavior Ability to think holistically and in terms of trade-offs, judgments, with the recognition that latent system properties and interactions could lead to emergent behavior A collection of simple agents interacting locally with each other and the environment in accord with simple rules and without a centralized control structure dictating how each agent should behave. The local and, to a certain degree, random interactions among agents lead to emergent global behavior, unknown to the participating agents The evolution of technology systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks by merging existing technologies into new forms that harness different media and applications The ability to verify the history and source of a requirement in system development A balance achieved between two or more desirable, competing properties through reasoned compromise among stakeholders An activity concerned with answering a basic question: are solutions being suggested as good as possible are they on the Pareto frontier? How much must I give up to get a little more of what I want most? A state of knowledge that arises from having imperfect incomplete information about a system and/or its environment as well as unknown system states arising from partial observability of the system A measure of preferences over a set of goods/services; an important concept in rational choice theory in economics and game theory An activity performed at the end of the testing cycle to determine how well a product or service addresses the business needs that hopefully are reflected in the requirements specification did we build what the market needs?

8 212 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms and Definitions Value Verification A measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent; generally measured relative to units of currency, and the interpretation is therefore what is the maximum amount of money a specific actor is willing and able to pay for the good or service? Value can be either objective or subjective. In the latter case, it means subjective worth or importance. For example, the value of future benefits to the decision maker, the value of clean air to the society. For the purposes of analysis, the subjective values must be measured on some scale. These measures of value should be based on preferences expressed by the person or group of interest Testing to determine whether or not a product or service satisfies its specification did we build what we signed up to?