Stakeholder Analysis of an Executable Achitecture Systems Engineering (EASE) Tool.

摘要

The research team at STTC has attempted to holistically address many of these challenges via a web-based tool; Executable Architecture Systems Engineering (EASE). EASE is a Systems Engineering tool that allows development and management of distributed simulation models throughout the M&S life cycle from identification of event objectives through cloud-based deployment. As a web-based application, EASE provides an easy to use interface to allow M&S users to more easily configure and execute M&S on a cloud-based set of computing resources. EASE allows M&S users to customize execution of a simulation event based on an interview process that identifies system-wide functional and technical requirements and then determines which applications and hardware allocations are necessary for execution to achieve these functional and technical requirements. EASE automatically configures the network and necessary supporting software in order to execute the applications on virtual machines using a Platform as a Service architecture. The EASE development team commissioned this study in order to focus planned improvements to EASE, based on a comprehensive study of the needs and preferences of potential users and other stakeholders to determine the most important functions and attributes for the product. Specifically, conduct a detailed stakeholder analysis, looking very broadly at the various stakeholders and the desired functions of EASE, in order to devise and prioritize possible additions or improvements for the development team to include in future versions. We utilize both the Systems Decision Process (SDP) and Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) to gather and analyze stakeholder feedback. User feedback is clustered and organized into Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations (FCR) to highlight trends, capability gaps, and major issues. The FCR tables and stakeholder feedback are then used as the foundation of a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis.