System of Systems Engineering Center of Excellence (SoSECE)

SoS Engineering Complements Systems Engineering

(SoSECE) (pronounced SO SEK' EE ) was established to provide a focused resource to facilitate the nation’s need to have weapons systems that are truly conceived, developed, and integrated as interoperable System of Systems (SoS). SoSECE’s main objective is to develop a formal SoS engineering methodology and apply this methodology to Department of Defense (DoD) programs.

WHAT IS SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING?

System of Systems (SoS) Engineering is an emerging interdisciplinary approach focusing on the effort required to transform capabilities into SoS solutions and shape the requirements for systems. SoS Engineering ensures that:

• Individually developed, managed, and operated systems function as autonomous constituents of one or more SoS and provide appropriate functional capabilities to each of those SoS.

• Political, financial, legal, technical, social, operational, and organizational factors—including the stakeholders’ perspectives and relationships—are considered in SoS development, management, and operations.

• A SoS can accommodate changes to its conceptual, functional, physical, and temporal boundaries without negative impacts on its management and operations.

• A SoS collective behavior, and its dynamic interactions with its environment to adapt and respond, enables the SoS to meet or exceed the required capability.

WHAT IS SoSECE?

The System of Systems Engineering Center of Excellence (SoSECE) is an internationally recognized, independent, and unbiased resource and focal point for the advancement and application of SoS research and practice. SoSECE’s mission is to:

• Lead, advocate, and practice the SoS discipline

• Develop and apply SoS practices

• Educate SoS practitioners

SoSECE is committed to expanding SoS theory and methods by establishing partnerships with government, industry, and academia to develop and apply state-of-the-art SoS practices. SoSECE staff is focused on providing value to its clients. SoSECE is operated by Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC), an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development professional services organization, and serves as an objective source of SoS knowledge and services.

SoSECE Offers:

Advising

Our advisors provide SoS perspectives and recommendations for decisions about establishing a SoS, and/or pursuing a SoS approach. This includes collaboration with, and leadership for, a client’s SoS team.

Education and Training

Tailored education and training increases awareness of SoS challenges, helps clients to understand the benefits of SoS approaches, and provides processes and practices to address SoS challenges.

Consulting

Our consultants can assess existing situations from a SoS perspective and recommend solutions, or help clients to initiate new SoS activities and processes. Consultants apply their skills across the full SoS life cycle from concept inception through retirement.

Support

SoSECE personnel can augment a client’s staff with SoS subject matter expertise to become an integrated member of the client’s SoS team in order to provide SoS-related perspectives, recommendations, and solutions.

SoS Practices Development

SoSECE leads and advances the development of SoS management, engineering, and support practices. SoSECE conducts coordinated, focused, applied research with academia to build a firm foundation for developing, adapting, and applying SoS practices to real-world problems in government and industry. SoSECE captures lessons-learned from applications and shares information with others involved in SoS to refine SoS practices. These practices and lessons-learned provide and advance a tailorable framework for developing, implementing, and operating SoS solutions and are the foundation for SoSECE consulting, advising, support, and education services.