Architecture Design Space Generation via Decision Pattern-Guided Department of Defense Architecture Framework Modeling

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The importance of architecture design keeps increasing as the complexity of systems and system-of-systems (SoSs) continues rising. While the architecture frameworks such as the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) are commonly used to guide architecture design, many perspectives are still hindering their effective use. Instead of generating a set of architecture description models probably only for satisfying the milestone review, the architecture frameworks should be used to organize the vague or incomplete information, identify and formulate the decision-making problem, and guide the architecture decision-making. Unfortunately, the decision points are hidden in the architecture models and the ambiguity often leads to a confusion of whether the architecture models are built incorrectly due to the lack of modeling experience or the lack of adequate decision analysis. Therefore, this paper identifies the key decision points and decision types during the architecture model development based on the DoDAF. Plus, this paper proposes a set of decision patterns and a guide to their use to provide qualitative decision analysis for developing architecture models and generating alternatives. An illustrative example to anti-submarine SoSs demonstrates the process of applying the decision patterns to the DoDAF model’s development and the generated architecture alternatives.