Documentation-as-code for Interface Control Document Management in Systems of Systems: a Technical Action Research Study

TL;DR

This study explores applying documentation-as-code principles to manage interface control documents in Systems of Systems, aiming to improve interdisciplinary collaboration and interface management through a practical proof-of-concept.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of documentation-as-code to interface document management in Systems of Systems, supported by a practical proof-of-concept and empirical evaluation.

Findings

Improved interface management through documentation-as-code

Practitioners found the approach beneficial for collaboration

The proof-of-concept demonstrated practical feasibility

Abstract

The architecting of Systems of Systems (SoS), that is, of systems that emerge from the cooperation of multiple independent constituent systems, is a topic of increasing interest in both industry and academia. However, recent empirical studies revealed what seems to be an overlooked aspect of the architecting of SoS that is linked to major integration and operational issues: the interplay between the various disciplines involved in such an architecting process. This aspect becomes particularly relevant for the management of the interfaces between the SoS constituents, where such disciplines inevitably meet. In this paper, we present the results of the first cycle of a Technical Action Research (TAR) study conducted in cooperation between the authors and a group of practitioners involved in the long-running architecting process of a large-scale radio astronomy SoS project. This TAR is aimed at exploring potential improvements of the document-centered interface management approach currently followed in this project by adopting elements of the \textit{documentation-as-code} philosophy, which is widely adopted in the domain of software systems. As a result, a working proof-of-concept of an ICD (Interface Control Document) management approach was developed by the researchers and evaluated by the practitioners. The results of the study and the corresponding lessons learned are reported in this work.