Value mapping and modeling SoS assurance technologies and supply chain

A significant challenge for systems of systems assurance is that the return on investment from the adoption of assurance technologies and solutions - both technically and financially - is typically not realized by the organizations that directly make the investment. Consequently, decisions to adopt these technologies are difficult to justify, if not impossible. In turn, this devalues the return on investment of those who have funded the research and development of assurance-oriented technologies. In a recently launched project on software assurance, with specific focus on systems of systems (SoS) assurance, the SEI has begun characterizing and modeling interrelationships among organizations across the supply chain and the assurance technologies they fund, create and transition to multiple types of ldquoconsumers.rdquo Taxonomies and an initial systems dynamics model describing organizations' roles in the ldquoassurance supply chainrdquo and technologies' assurance contribution have been developed. These can support investment and adoption decisions, even when the adopting organization and/or assurance technology is several degrees removed from the final system.