Deploying, Using, and Sustaining Systems to Solve Problems
This article considers the activities of the systems approach related to the deployment, sustainment, and use of a solution. Any of the activities described below may need to be considered concurrently with the other activities in the systems approach. The final article in this knowledge area, Applying the Systems Approach, considers the dynamic aspects of how these activities are used as part of the systems approach and how this relates in detail to elements of systems engineering (SE).
Engineered systems are eventually owned by an individual, team, or enterprise. Those who own the system during development may not be the ones who own the system when it is in operation. Moreover, the owners may not be the users; e.g., service systems may be used by the general public but owned by a specific business that is offering the service. The transition of a system from development to operations is often itself a complex task, involving such activities as training those who will operate the system, legal actions to complete the transfer, and establishing logistical arrangements so that the operators can keep the system running once the transition is completed.
There is very little in the literature pertaining to the application of the systems approach to this phase of the life cycle. However, a basic premise of this knowledge area is that the systems approach pertains to all phases of a system’s life cycle. Hence, to properly build systems to solve problems or for other uses, it can be inferred that the systems approach pertains to the deployment, utilization, and the sustainment of the systems. Many of the references in this topic are from SE rather than from the systems approach. Hence, it can be assumed that aspects of the systems approach exist on a more abstract level and can be linked to SE aspects.
Transition
Transferring custody of the system of interest (SoI), and responsibility for its support from one organization to another, is often called transition (INCOSE 2011). Transition of a product system includes the integration of the system into the acquiring organization's infrastructure.
Transition includes the initial installation of a system while ensuring that it is compatible with the wider system and does not cause any significant wider system issues. This process of acceptance and release for use varies between domains and across businesses and enterprises and can be thought of as an initial assessment of the system’s effectiveness (glossary (Hitchins 2007). Generally, transition may be considered to have two parts: (1) ensuring that the new system interoperates with the systems around it and (2) ensuring the resulting system is safe and has other critical operational properties.
It is particularly important to have considered emergent properties when a new system is added to the existing organization's system of systems (sos) network, as well as the complexity of the organization into which the new system is transitioned (see also Complexity). The more complex the receiving organization is, the more challenging the transition will be, and the greater the likelihood of unintended interactions and consequences from the new system's insertion. Dealing with the consequences of this complexity starts in transition and continues into operation, maintenance, and disposal.
Transition of a service system is often performed in two stages. First, the service system infrastructure is accepted and released. Second, each realization of the service is accepted and released. There can be significant problems during the second stage if the required responsiveness of the service does not leave sufficient time to ensure that the service meets necessary functional and quality attributes, including interoperability, safety, and security. (See Service Systems Engineering).
Transition can also require its own enabling systems , each of which can be realized using a systems approach.
Operation
Use of the system to help enable delivery of user services is often called “operations” (INCOSE 2011). A system’s effectiveness is normally considered throughout the operational life of a system. For a complex system, emergent behavior should be considered in three ways:
- to identify and plan for emergent properties within the system realization process;
- to incorporate mechanisms for identifying and handling unexpected emergent properties within the system during its use; and
- to provide necessary procedures for dealing with wider system consequences of unexpected emergent properties in the enterprise; e.g., emergency responses or medical first aid.
Operations require their own enabling systems, each of which can be realized using a systems approach.
Maintenance
The purpose of maintenance is to sustain the system through its useful life (INCOSE 2011). In system terms, maintenance implements systems to deal with entropy and maintaining the system of interest in a viable state. Since an open system maintains its existence by continual exchange of energy, information, and materiel with its environment, one aspect of its maintenance must be the management of resources in the environment.
Hitchins (2007) describes generic approaches to resource management and viability management based on system concepts. Resource management identifies the need to consider the acquisition, storage, distribution, conversion, and disposal of resources. Viability management should consider systems to maintain homeostasis and means for ensuring resilience to environmental disturbance and adaptability to environmental change.
Maintenance will require its own enabling systems, each of which can be realized using a systems approach. Maintenance success is more likely if it is considered as part of the system concept and design well before the system enters service.
Disposal
The purpose of disposal is to remove a system element from the operational environment with the intent of permanently terminating its functions, and to deal with any waste products left behind by the system. NASA (2007) describes disposal from the vantage point of NASA space and ground systems.
Disposal requires its own enabling systems, each of which can be realized using a systems approach. As with maintenance, a large part of successful disposal requires related issues to have been considered early on in the system’s life cycle.
References
Works Cited
Hitchins, D. 2007. Systems Engineering: A 21st Century Systems Methodology. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley and Sons.
INCOSE. 2011. INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, version 3.2.1. San Diego, CA, USA: International Council on Systems Engineering. INCOSE-TP-2003-002-03.2.1.
Lawson, H. 2010. A Journey Through the Systems Landscape. London, UK: College Publications, Kings College.
Primary References
INCOSE. 2011. Systems Engineering Handbook, version 3.2.1. San Diego, CA, USA: International Council on Systems Engineering. INCOSE-TP-2003-002-03.2.1.
Additional References
No additional references have been identified for version 0.75. Please provide any recommendations on additional references in your review.
Comments from SEBoK 0.5 Wiki
Please note that in version 0.5, this article was titled “Owning and Making Use of a System”.
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