Employing UAF Inter-Domain Traceability for Performance and Effectiveness Evaluation

We propose a step-by-step Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) process for the creation and simulation of an executable Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) model for evaluation purposes. The roll-up of Technical Performance Measures (TPMs) to Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) is necessary for such a process, and has not been documented for the UAF. This paper is the first attempt to address this gap by demonstrating how interdependencies between these technical measures can be traced across the domains of a UAF architecture according to the ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 standard, the guidelines from the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, and the UAF Enterprise Architecture Guide. The proposed process employs traceability and parametric diagrams within the UAF to produce an executable model that aids in evaluating the effectiveness of a system’s architecture. Additionally, we describe how to build a simulation within the UAF to assess a parametric diagram containing random values of TPMs. The process identifies UAF views, their constituent model elements, and the relationships that are required to build this model. We also present an illustrative example of a forest firefighting system to demonstrate the implementation and effectiveness of the proposed process. This paper is intended as a resource for systems engineering practitioners.