Co-investigators Olivier deWeck , Bruce Cameron
Project Website http://systemarchitect.mit.edu/
Every built system has an architecture. Products such as communications satellites, automobiles, semi-conductor capital equipment and commercial aircraft are defined by a few key decisions that are made early in each program's lifecycle. The emerging field of System Architecture aims to understand what patterns emerge across disparate domains, to gain an understanding of "What makes good architecture?"
The System Architecture Group studies the early-stage technical decisions that will determine the majority of the system's performance. We've helped architect systems from oil exploration platforms for ice-bound drilling to lunar surface exploration vehicles. Key contention is that by identifying the most important initial technical decisions and exhaustively enumerating their options, we can identify the best potential designs before detailed design activities. Work stands in contrast to a traditional trade-study perspective, where 2-4 points designs are compared, without reference to the intervening options or to a fully explored tradespace.
The work described here is divided into four research areas:(1) System Architecture(2) Stakeholder Analysis(3) Architecting Exploration(4) Commonality and Platforming