Risk management for an open CBS project

Open Systems are being presented as the way forward for the construction of complex Computer Based Systems (CBS) of all types. They have had some success but as with all such attempts to solve problems in computing, it is being toured as a panacea. Three years of work by UTS into Open Systems has recognised the following pitfalls with the current Open Systems approaches. Firstly, there is no Open System specific engineering/architecting process to guide developers who want to build an Open System. Secondly, during the engineering of a supposed Open System there is no way to evaluate if they are actually building an Open System, or indeed if one has ultimately been built. And finally, there is no way of guaranteeing that the usual performance requirements of the system will be met by the open approach. In this paper, application of the Open System Engineering Measures (OSEM) work performed by UTS is suggested as the basis of a system for monitoring and risk analysis of Open Systems. However, the measurement work is proposed as only one of the bases. UTS have also performed other research which could be invaluable if applied to monitoring and risk analysis. The other research focuses on a process for open systems development called an Open System Architecture Methodology (OSAM), and the performance prediction and analysis of open systems-Open System Performance Modelling (OSPM).