Today’s need for more complex, more capable systems in a short timeframe is leading more organizations towards the integration of existing systems into network-centric, knowledge-based system-of-systems (SoS). Software and system cost model tools to date have focused on the software and system development activities of a single software system. As we view the new system-of-system architectures, we find that the effort associated with the integration of these system-of-systems is not handled well, if at all, in current cost models. To support SoS planning activities, we have developed a candidate cost model with several size drivers and scale factors. This cost model supports the SoS cost and schedule estimation processes and helps managers better analyze the cost implications of their SoS architecture and development decisions. Currently, emphasis is on:

1. Clearly defining what a “system-of-systems” is with respect to the cost model under development.
2. Clearly defining the boundaries for the COSOSIMO model with respect to the other University of Southern California (USC) Center for Software Engineering (CSE) Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) suite of tools (i.e., how does this model fit with the system engineering cost model, the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) assessment and integration cost model, and the software development cost model).
3. Identifying a minimal yet sufficient set of size drivers that can be determined in the early architecture development stages.
4. Identifying a comprehensive set of scale factors that adequately represent the most influential cost factors in SoS planning, architecting, and integration.

We have conducted several workshops with USC CSE affiliates and other interested experts from industry to explore SoS concepts in various domains, refine the model, and identify candidate data the can be used to further calibrate and validate the cost model. Feedback from the latest workshop is currently being integrated into the model.

Biography
Ms. Jo Ann Lane is currently a PhD student at USC working in the area of System Architecting and Engineering. Prior to joining the USC PhD program, Ms. Lane was a key technical member of Science Applications International Corporation’s (SAIC) Software and Systems Integration Group. Her areas of expertise include software project management, software process definition and implementation, and metrics collection and analysis. She has over 28 years of software engineering and development experience on a variety of projects that include management information, COTS integration, web applications, distributed processing, health care/telemedicine applications, command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) systems, real-time signal processing, and aircraft simulation programs. Ms. Lane earned her BA degree in Mathematics and her MS degree in Computer Science from San Diego State University.