Systems of Systems Thinking

Abstract

As more of our systems interoperate in one or more independently evolving systems of systems and user needs focus more on ``new capabilities'' rather than a ``new system,'' so too do our systems thinking processes need to evolve to SoS thinking. SoS thinking builds upon systems thinking to consider the interactions of the SoS constituent systems with each other, along with the challenges of keeping multiple independently evolving SoSs compatibly evolving with each other and the external environment. This paper presents a framework for defining and guiding SoS thinking.