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Systems Engineering in Context pp 463–479Cite as

A Value-Centric Tradespace Approach to Target System Modularization

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Abstract

Deciding where to modularize a system can have a long-term impact on that system’s value over its entire life cycle. The modularity of a system can impact the system’s flexibility, evolvability, scalability, mass, costs, and development schedule. Making these modularization decisions is a key job of the system architect. There is a need to provide the system architect tools that will help focus modularization efforts on the areas of the system that are most likely to provide value to stakeholders of the system. Using a terrestrial vehicle as a case study, an approach is developed that links component modularity to system design variables which are likely to change levels. The approach utilizes dynamic value-driven Tradespaces and network measures of component modularity to identify components which are most likely to need to change as well as the components’ ability to make a modular change. The approach is shown to provide early design insights about value-centric system modularizations; the approach does require a network representation of the system earlier in the design cycle than may be typically available. Using explicit knowledge, the approach developed can focus designers’ modularization efforts on the elements of the system that may need to change to accommodate changes in stakeholders’ preferences and use contexts.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Adam M. Ross & Hank H. Roark III

Authors
  1. Adam M. Ross
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  2. Hank H. Roark III
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam M. Ross .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Stephen Adams

  2. Department of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Peter A. Beling

  3. Department of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    James H. Lambert

  4. Department of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    William T. Scherer

  5. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Cody H. Fleming

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Ross, A.M., Roark, H.H. (2019). A Value-Centric Tradespace Approach to Target System Modularization. In: Adams, S., Beling, P., Lambert, J., Scherer, W., Fleming, C. (eds) Systems Engineering in Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00114-8_38

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