The capabilities associated with the decision support modules provide for:

1. the interface to analysis;
2. the documentation used to justify decisions;
3. the data concerning verification and validation;
4. the requirements along with information rights, documents, requirement sources, classifications, effectivity, and requirement assignment;
5. versioning and version relationships;
6. the traceability and collection of requirements;
7. trades studies with a measures of effectiveness decision support capability.

Three arms are used to relate an interface to analysis. They are: External_analysis_representation_arm, Analysis_assignment_arm, and Analysis_characterized_arm. These arms store the data a tool user needs to specify the equation to solve, where in the total system model to pick up the needed parameter values, and where to return the computed values. This capability underlies all of performance calculation, trade studies, and verification and validation.

Versioning and version relationships are needed not only by requirements, but also by many other elements of the total system model. Consequently they are defined once for an entity called “Product” and then inherited from that entity through the software mechanism of subclasses. The best way to think about product is as thing or anything. In consequence, the versioning and version relationships are in an ARM called Requirement_identification_and_version_arm that inherits from arms Product_version_arm and then from Product_view_definition_arm.

The concepts of tracing among entities and collecting them into groups is also pervasive. Consequently the traceability and collection of requirements is supported by the Requirement_view_definition_relationship_arm that inherits from the Product_view_definition_relationship_arm.

Trade studies and Measures of effectiveness (MOEs) are supported by reference data. A trade study is a class of activity and an MOE is a class of requirement version. The weighting of MOE's in the regularization function of a trade study are represented by properties on the relationship between the MOE and the trade study. The direction of optimization (maximize or minimize) is represented by a subclass of the MOE classification.

From the perspective of information cross coupling; the type extend lists identified within this module specify how all decision support information modelling concepts defined within the schemas of the decision support domain are coupled together via type extends within the decision support domain.

NOTE    A large repository of information relevant to users and implementers of the STEP capabilities used in common by ISO 10303-239 and 80% of ISO 10303-233 is at http://docs.oasis-open.org/plcs/dexlib/oasis_cover.htm.

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