Network Science Enabled Cost Estimation in Support of MBSE

As Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) continues to mature, additional analyses can be performed to understand the relationships between a system's cost, schedule, and performance. The DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is one of many approaches for representing the relationship between system components. If DoDAF diagrams - such as those provided in the Systems View - are treated as networks, they can be mathematically analyzed, providing additional summary metrics that might yield valuable insight into the degree of effort (i.e., cost) required to bring a system to fruition. For instance, if we view the addition of a new subsystem to the system's architecture abstractly as the addition of a vertex to a network, we can apply contemporary methods from network science to grow the network and estimate its cost. Unlike rules of thumb, this approach provides us with an objective way to quantify and assess change. The objective of this work is to turn MBSE knowledge into computational knowledge in order to support tradeoffs, change impact analysis, and related approaches early in the life cycle.