3.1.2 Lifecycle Verification of a System of Systems

System-level verification is intended to check that the system satisfies a set of requirements. The verification of a system of systems (SoS) is more difficult for a number of reasons. In a SoS, multiple organizations are involved, and there may be no overall project manager. It may be necessary to develop new systems that integrate with legacy systems that cannot be modified. Finally, the separate systems within a SoS can have separate development processes and schedules. New methods of system engineering (SE) processes are needed to deal with the verification of SoS. This paper reviews how V-Models have been used to visualize the SE process for SoS. For the common situation of a SoS consisting of only two systems, an intersecting V-Model is suggested, followed by a discussion of important factors to consider when verifying a SoS, including configuration management, integrated master schedule development, lifecycle simulation, and test system design. These considerations are illuminated by describing the verification of a SoS consisting of an asset health monitoring system and data download software. The tradeoffs of using hardware versus software approaches to lifecycle simulation are presented. The paper concludes with an overview of lessons learned for future SoS development.