An Unambiguous Language for Systems Process Design and Engineering

This research focuses on a language for specifying the necessary, sufficient and efficient capabilities of a system, particularly the processes by which a system responds to external stimuli and sustains internal integrity. Because process decisions are the more numerous in system design the ability of designers to exchange process knowledge becomes increasingly crucial as system extent, variety and ambiguity increases. This is particularly evident when designers must devise autonomous systems that learn, foster learning and even generate new capabilities from their repertoire of processes.System engineering literature has not provided a comprehensive taxonomy of system processes. The text most often used to train systems engineering students cites only a very small number of systems processes1. Fortunately, systems biology and basic systems science research have already identified a robust taxonomy. We will use the System Processes and Linkage Propositions as clarified by Systems Processes Theory (SPT) 2,3 as a reference and compare several actual physical and sociotechnical models to the reference set. One objective is to determine the degree to which the quality, parsimony and beauty of a system model can be improved by using the reference repertoire. If MBSE can be improved by the reference set, and SPT detail helps us understand systems dynamics more deeply, then it may further help use explain and improve systems sustainability and resilience. A second objective is to determine the effect on designer productivity and innovation. A third is to evolve an ontology for computer-aided system composition. The research plan seeks to involve volunteer co-learners from various domains in this endeavor.