A Model Centric Framework and Approach for Complex Systems Policy

Twenty-first century systems engineering is no longerdocument-centric; instead, it is model-centric. Model-centric systems engineering helps reduce ambiguity, increase clarity, and increase the analytics of the resulting complex systems. However, complex systems are governed by organizational policies that are still document-centric. Such policies are difficult to analyze, and gaps in policy can lead to major deficiencies in the resulting complex systems. This article introduces a framework for policy content modeling (PCM) and analysis. The framework represents the conceptual view and is supported by a step-by-step approach to achieve complete policy modeling and analysis. This approach was used with the intention of identifying and analyzing gaps in policy content and calculating policy toxicity, which negatively affects the resulting system. This framework and approach was also applied to Veterans Affairs (VA) and university policies. The VA PCM is conducted to discover toxicity in the policies and University policies modeling is done to graphically represent an undocumented policy and toxicity in the policy implementation.