ABSTRACT
Modern enterprises are irreversibly dependent on large-scale information systems built from components whose function and quality attributes are not necessarily known a priori. The ad hoc and network-centric nature of these systems means that a complete static analysis of such systems is difficult or impossible. These systems grow and interconnect with other systems in ways that exceed current engineering techniques for intellectual control. We propose a new engineering framework for reasoning about and developing such systems of systems: the Flow-Service-Quality (FSQ) framework. Our aim is to provide rigorous, practical engineering tools and methods to reason about system flows as first-class objects of specification, design, implementation, and operation. System flows are realized as traces of system services, and their quality attributes are treated as dynamic, changing quantities that are measured during system execution.
