Testing Whether the Adoption of Model-Based Systems Engineering Influences How Stakeholders Think About Systems

Abstract

The Department of Defense is adopting model-based systems engineering in which models will replace the extensive amounts of documentation generated in developing a new system. This research examines how this shift from textual description of the system and its requirements to a model-based description will affect the acquisition process. Specifically, we ask whether engineers and other stakeholders will be able to extract the same understanding of the system requirements from the models as they can from the traditional textual requirements specifications. We propose a theory called Model Relativity Theory, saying that the language used to represent and communicate system design and requirements influences how people think about the system. In this presentation, we describe the theory, present our exploratory research studies, discuss our research protocol, describe the research plan, and present the current status of our study.