Multi-stakeholder Dynamic Planning of System of Systems Development and Evolution

This paper focuses on the master development planning problem in the context of SoS acquisition with resource constraints, uncertainty, and conflicting stakeholder interests. Because most of the master plans are developed by an authority with significant control, which might not be true in a SoS environment. Different stakeholders might have conflicting master plans that require communication, negotiation and coordination. We propose a decentralized multi-stakeholder decision making framework where local stakeholders conduct acquisition development planning for individual benefits while the SoS-level stakeholder designs a coordination mechanism to facilitate the communication between stakeholders and further achieve a harmonious outcome. Specifically, we employ approximate dynamic programming and a transfer contract coordination mechanism to address the problem. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach through a simple illustrative example.