Rapid concept development of the mission space architecture, process modeling, and capability analysis

Early system engineering is not focused on the natural triangle of relationships between architecture, alternatives and performance. As a result, early understanding of conceptual trade space is focused on a sequential and independent effort when developing the system concept. This method is rife with inefficiency, broad and incorrect assumptions of the preceding step, ultimately leading to large amounts of rework and a non-unifying effort throughout the project team. This paper provides a means to show through an illustrative example that these three elements are interconnected and building them simultaneously improves the efficiency of concept development. The results of the paper highlight the parallel relationships between the elements that are usually developed in a serial process. This method provides the means to continuously build related architecture, alternatives, and performance elements together.