Heuristic Extrapolation in System Architecture

Abstract In this paper we consider heuristic methods for system architecture. System architecture problems are particularly open‐ended and ill‐structured and resistant to “rational” or “derivational” methods. The heuristic method, employing catalogs of heuristics, is one possible way to address the particular problems of system architecture. The heuristic catalog attempts to capture important and consistent structural elements of complex systems that strongly correlate with success or failure. Unfortunately, most heuristics gathered to date are primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive . This paper describes a method for developing context sensitive prescriptive heuristics as part of a design process that iteratively removes abstraction in the design representation. We call this process heuristic extrapolation. We illustrate the method by application to hardware/software partitioning and the Intelligent Vehicles and Highways System, a large scale sociotechnical system.