Measuring tool chain interoperability in Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-Physical Systems are developed through complex engineering projects that include many stakeholders and a variety of tools and processes from different engineering backgrounds. Interoperability in these development tool chains is an important aspect for well-integrated systems. Furthermore, since full tool chain interoperability is neither possible nor necessarily desired, measuring interoperability in development environments is essential for setting the right priorities. This systematic literature review gives an overview of the literature about interoperability assessment methods. A survey was conducted through digital libraries and a total of 42 papers were read. Out of these papers, 24 different interoperability assessment models were identified and analyzed. A striking find of this study is that no proof of industrial adaptation of these models was found. In this paper, we analyze the reasons for this lack of validation in the context of CPS development.