Process definition for rapid architecture development

A rapid architecture development process was used to design an architecture concept that provided system requirements for the command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) system component of a major weapon platform. This paper describes the architecture process, including the activities and associated tasks, to develop the architecture concept. The architecture concept defined the system component´s life cycle framework. The architecture process is based on TRW´s system and software engineering process assets. The process description includes a discussion of the engineering activities and the four principal system engineering processes used to direct the work effort: (1) architecture framework, which established the scope of the architecture; (2) requirements management, which established the boundaries for the architecture; (3) modeling and simulation, which established performance requirements and drove the architecture preliminary design; and (4) analyses, which provided overall substantiation for the engineering architecture effort. The process guided the rapid development of the C3I system architecture concept; the work was part of a concurrent engineering effort