Improved System Development through New Stressor Scenario Construction for Operational Test and Evaluation

摘要

Modeling and simulation is a staple for early testing in a system's life cycle. We present a technique to leverage these early simulation efforts to construct optimized stressor scenarios for inclusion in the system's test and evaluation master plan. The master plan is essential for creating the stage upon which a system is thoroughly tested for its ability to succeed in diverse and highly difficult environments. However, the time and resources to examine a system in as many different situations as needed is often impossible. We offer an approach that minimizes the number of required events to rigorously evaluate a system. Innovative application of wargaming, computer simulation, and advanced experimental designs identifies the most relevant operational conditions that can reveal interesting or critical issues about a system. The resulting finite set of missions and operational parameters that stress the system points to the scenarios that the test team should develop. The reduced number of events saves time and resources while offering opportunities to study unexplored combinations of operational parameters. We contend that this novel approach to scenario development will ultimately uncover more important data about the system than previous methods.