A different view on system decomposition - Subsystem-centered property evaluation in multiple supersystems

This paper motivates the need for enhanced support for subsystem development and evaluation in the context of large engineering systems. Established approaches e.g. from the field of systems engineering seem to provide too little differentiation between how system development ideally should be approached and what "channels" (means) are realistically available for a company developing these systems. The research presented is motivated by the challenges identified in the context of the offshore petroleum drilling industry and the assumption that the challenges system providers face in that context are representative for other industries as well. We propose a framework for addressing these challenges, aiming at supporting the evaluation basis for a subsystem by its projection into multiple supersystems and stakeholder systems. We specify the requirements differentiating different possible strategic and operational directions. We confront the identified requirements and potential directions to specific research areas, and established methods and tools, usually being applied in the context of overall system development or described only generally. We investigate which sub-aspects of the envisaged framework are being implicitly or explicitly addressed by these approaches and estimate their transferability potential. The identified potentials and limitations of the different approaches constitute the basis for a further substantiation of the framework.