Multiobjective Optimization in Multifunction Multicapability System Development Planning

Properly allocating resources to achieve system development objectives has remained a challenge in systems engineering management. Various optimization models have been developed to optimize respective figures of merit (FOMs) subject to development constraints. System readiness level (SRL) is a system FOM that was originally introduced to assess the maturity of a system during its development lifecycle and has evolved to cover the development of multifunction multicapability (MFMC) systems. Optimization models which include SRL as either the objective or a constraint have been proposed for system development planning. Building on the definition of the recently enhanced MFMC SRL, this paper proposes a multiobjective optimization model, called MO_SRL, to simultaneously optimize the following: 1) the maturity of the system's selected functions or capabilities and 2) the consumption of development resources. An evolutionary algorithm is used to obtain a Pareto set of optimal solutions, where each solution represents a development plan informing which system components should be advanced to which maturity levels without exceeding a certain amount of resource consumption. With the consideration of SRL correlation to typical system development lifecycle, this model can identify several development alternatives for improving the system maturity to more advanced phases with minimum resource consumption, and these multiple alternatives provide systems engineering managers with flexibility in planning system development.