Software Engineering Institute

The allocation of command-and-control (C2) functions to systems, subsystems, and computing nodes impacts architectural qualities such as latency and composability. The SEI developed an analysis method to assess allocations in existing C2 systems and reason about design choices and tradeoffs during the design of new C2 systems. A program manager or portfolio manager can use the analysis method early in the lifecycle to

• compare architecture drivers across systems and understand the types of requirements changes that could allow increased architecture commonality across systems
• identify edge cases – systems with requirements or constraints that preclude architecture commonality
• focus architecture design changes to improve commonality
• evaluate new architecture approaches

The method prioritizes the architecture qualities for the system or systems under analysis and then rates candidate solutions (allocations) based on how well each candidate satisfies each architecture quality. The prioritization and ratings are defined and synthesized using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, a mature multi-criteria decision-making method. The synthesis produces a ranking of the candidate allocations for each system. Sensitivity analysis allows exploration of tradeoffs in requirements (by altering the prioritization of the architecture qualities) and design (by modifying a candidate solution) that would improve, for example, the reusability or replaceability of system elements.