SAMM: an architecture modeling methodology for ship command and control systems

Ship command and control systems (SCCSs) are composed of large-scale, complex, real-time and software-intensive systems that complete tasks collaboratively. Open architecture has been introduced to design the architecture of SCCSs and has been refined into functional architecture (FA) and technical architecture (TA) to meet architectural requirements such as adapting fast-speed functional and technical changes. Thereby, specifying the architecture of SCCSs, based on FA and TA, becomes a key issue for stakeholders of the domain. In this paper, we propose an architecture modeling methodology (named as SAMM) for describing the architecture of SCCSs. SAMM is derived by following a systematic and generic framework—modeling Goal, domain-specific Conceptual model, architecture Viewpoint, and architecture description Language (GCVL), which guides domain experts to devise domain-specific architecture modeling methodologies of large-scale software-intensive systems. SAMM contains three viewpoints and 22 models, and a UML/SysML-based architecture description language. An industrial application of SAMM, along with the subsequent application of the derived SAMM architecture model (i.e., a deployed SCCS prototype) was conducted to evaluate SAMM. A questionnaire-based survey was also conducted to subjectively evaluate whether SAMM meets the modeling goals and its applicability. Results show that SAMM meets all modeling goals and is easy to apply.