Collaborative Research: Developing a Constructive Logic-Based Theory of Value-Based Systems Engineering

系统工程是负责确保现代工程项目(通常是软件密集型工程项目)取得全面成功的学科。成功最终取决于为所有对成功至关重要的利益相关者创造价值。创造价值需要了解、指定、管理、验证和发展跨系统属性的复杂权衡，并将这些属性与涉众价值联系起来。例如，这些属性包括可负担性、可靠性、可进化性、安全性和保密性。然而，今天，重大项目继续出错，很大程度上是由于未能充分明确和管理这些资产和权衡。一个核心问题是，许多属性的定义和理解都非常不准确，以至于导致沟通错误和混乱。长期以来，试图使用自然和准数学语言来定义这种性质并没有解决这个问题。该项目旨在开发和评估高度表达的数学、逻辑和构造性逻辑的计算语言，以产生和验证系统属性、权衡空间以及这些属性和利益相关者价值之间的联系的精确模型。根据这样的正式语言规范，模型的计算机实现将被自动生成并作为Web服务提供给系统工程师用于应用和测试。正规语言有可能澄清和揭示不精确、歧义、不完整和不一致的自然语言规范中的概念性错误。类型理论符号基于高阶逻辑、多态类型、计算内容和命题内容的无缝集成以及从规范中提取经过认证的软件的能力，提供了高度的表现力。该项目将使用建设性的逻辑来开发、测试和改进系统属性、权衡以及权衡空间与利益相关者偏好的映射的定义和模型。这种方法在系统工程中是新颖的，知识中的重要差距仍然存在。为了填补这些问题，将解决以下研究问题：(1)确定如何最好地表示概率系统属性的类型理论定义中的不确定性；(2)确定用于构建能够可靠地专门用于特定项目的一般属性理论的适当机制；(3)开发和评估系统属性的语言和模型，特别是包括进化属性；(4)开发和评估将系统设计、属性和价值空间联系在一起的形式框架；(5)使用户社区能够通过Web服务来参与此类理论构建。该项目将开发和测试基于构造逻辑的理论可以帮助系统工程师更好地对系统设计、属性、权衡和利益相关者价值进行推理的假设。

Systems engineering is the discipline responsible for assuring the overall success of modern, often software-intensive, engineering projects. Success ultimately hinges on the creation of value for all success-critical stakeholders. Creating value requires understanding, specifying, managing, validating, and evolving complex trade-offs across properties of systems, and linking such properties to stakeholder value. Such properties include, for instance, affordabilty, reliability, evolvability, safety, and confidentiality. Today, however, major projects continue to go awry in large part due to a failure to adequately specify and manage such properties and trade-offs. A core problem is that many properties are defined and understood so imprecisely that they cause miscommunication and confusion. A long history of attempts to use natural and quasi-mathematical language to define such properties has not solved this problem. This project aims to develop and evaluate the highly expressive mathematical, logical, and computational language of constructive logic to produce and validate precise models of system properties, trade-off spaces, and linkages between such properties and stakeholder values. From such formal language specifications, computer implementations of the models will be automatically generated and provided as web services for application and testing by systems engineers.Formal languages have the potential to clarify and reveal conceptual errors in imprecise, ambiguous, incomplete, and inconsistent natural language specifications. Type theoretical notations offer high expressiveness based on higher-order logic, polymorphic types, and the seamless integration of computational and propositional content, as well as the ability to extract certified software from specifications. This project will employ constructive logic to develop, test, and refine definitions and models of system properties, trade-offs, and the mapping of trade-off spaces to stakeholder preferences. This approach is novel in systems engineering, and important gaps in knowledge remain. To fill them, the following research problems will be addressed (1) determine how best to represent uncertainty in type theoretic definitions of probabilistic system properties; (2) determine appropriate mechanisms for structuring general property theories that can reliably be specialized to specific projects; (3) develop and evaluate languages and models of system properties, including evolvability properties, in particular; (4) develop and evaluate formal frameworks linking system design, property, and value spaces; (5) enable user communities to engage with such theoretical constructs through web services. The project will develop and test the hypothesis that theories based in constructive logic can help systems engineers to reason better about system designs, properties, trade-offs, and stakeholder value.