Bringing the perspective and tools of engineering to work on CASoS analyses produces the problem definition needed to articulate the goals for influencing or designing the CASoS, the approaches required, and an evaluation of attainability. A general CASoS Engineering design process must be wide and deep to cover the many potential opportunities for unexpected, nonlinear, interconnected behavior and to find and make use of similarities across many disciplines.
As seen above, our design process is comprised of three phases applied primarily in succession but with some overlap, blending and iteration (both between and within) to deliver CASoS engineered solutions.
CASoS Engineering Design Process
- Phase 1 – Define
- Phase 2 – Design & Test
- Phase 3 – Actualize
Iteration is fundamental to the CASoS Engineering process: lessons learned from attempting any downstream activity may encourage new thinking that influences upstream activities.
Actualization will require designing and testing to suggest future steps: adaptations of the system might require us to return to fundamental thinking to understand the adaptations and possibly redefine the CASoS and our aspirations as the system changes.
The CASoS Engineering Environment supports all aspects of the CASoS engineering effort.
Reports
Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems (CASoS) Engineering: Mapping Aspirations to Problem Solutions [PDF]
CASoS Engineering 1.0 [PDF]
CASoS Engineering Applications 1.0 [PDF]