Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues

1. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues Moderator: John Baras Scribe: Eric Cooper Attendees: Claire Tomlin (UC Berkeley), Mingyan Li (Boeing), Lyle Long (Penn State), Walter Storm (Lockheed Martin), Peter Stanfill (Lockheed Martin), Eric Cooper (NASA Langley), Kristina Lundqvist (MIT), Ernie Lucier, Andres Zeilweger (JPDO), Barbara Lingberg (FAA), Elroy Weind (Cessna), John Baras (University of MD), Glenn Roberts (Mitre)

2. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • What are top three lessons learned for this technology area • What are top three needs that cannot be met • Top three challenges with timelines • Education issues

3. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • Lessons learned: • Systems engineering must be done up front and must include SW components that are annotated with the methodology/plan that will be used for certification / V & V • Systems engineering needs to define “contract” definition – and enforcement -- for interfaces so as to enable systems certification / verification (may include formal models of interfaces) from specification of components • User must be considered an integrated part of the whole system • A formalized approach to systems engineering is lacking with respect to tracking requirements across system components and generating, refining and clarifying requirements

4. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • Needs: • A systematic philosophy for integrating requirements management and “design-to-test” • Have SW certification “hooks” in place for all system components from the very beginning in order to enable systems level V & V and testing assurance • Models of pilot / user behavior and integrate these into the systems engineering process. • Unified model representation to facilitate the use of analysis tools • Quantitative methods that link V & V results back to requirements and testing

5. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • Research Challenges • Definition and extension of what is meant by certifiable and dependable (reliable, available,) including such new elements such as monitoring and self-correcting SW components [needed next 2 – 3 years] • Methods to perform timing analysis [next 2 – 3 years] • Development of interface modeling methodology to fully describe the component interface behavior so as to enable system V & V [next 3 - 5 years, maybe longer] • Change management methodology within cost and time constraints (change in requirements and technologies) [dependent on above, next 5 – 10 years]

6. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • Other Challenges • Tools to monitor software performance, integrate experimental data into monitoring, for updating • Understanding and quantifying software re-use • Understanding implications of COTS on system certification (will differ based on level of certitude)

7. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • Education • Need to teach system-level thinking; composability and scalability – avionics systems are much different from other SW-based application disciplines • Need for educational culture change • Need a pedagogical approach to systems engineering using common teaching approach • Teach life cycle view of software systems (from requirements, to design, through operational maintenance) • Need to have industry involved in the education process (not enough domain expertise currently in academia) • Increase industry internships • Need more technically rigorous software engineering programs in US at all levels (undergrad, grad, and continuing education) • Need more SW engineering training in all engineering disciplines

8. Systems & Cross-Cutting Issues • Systems engineering must be done up front, and must recognize that software concerns must be considered to be of equal importance with other components • Essential to have certification awareness included from the very beginning of the development process • User must be considered part of the whole system • Formal Methods shown valuable for refining / clarifying requirements • Have SW certification “hooks” in place from the very beginning for system level testing assurance (i.e., V & V at all levels of the requirements / specification / design) • Deciding what should be considered hardware vs. what should be considered software • Models of pilot / user response (models for professional, amateur, person off-the-street); “Cooper-Harper” ratings / bringing pilots in to test the system • A defined “design-to-test” philosophy • Unified model representation to facilitate the use of analysis tools • Quantitative methods that link V & V results back to requirements and testing • Do not currently have the interface modeling mechanisms to fully describe the component interface behavior • Definition of what it means to be dependable • Formal interface definition methodology (i.e., contract relative to data/timing/etc) • Multiple kinds of systems (boxes, heterogeneous aircraft, ATC system, etc.) • Software re-use is often problematic for many reasons – better approach might be to re-use certification basis • Incremental changes – no re-certification • Affect of software architecture on dependency and reliability • Timing constraints should be addressed • How do we capture probabilistic requirements?