An obsolescence management framework for system baseline evolution—Perspectives through the system life cycle

In military, civil, and commercial systems there exists a need to affordably manage the operational effectiveness of the system of interest through the acquisition and operational stages of its life cycle. Once a system design is baselined and instantiated, then the challenge during development, production, and utilization life cycle stages is to maintain the currency of the physical system baseline to facilitate affordable system support. In essence, the system must adapt to potentially frequent asynchronous obsolescence of its constituent elements, requirements growth (driven by the operational environmental and external constraints such as funding, schedule or risk), and external environment changes. This paper specifically addresses the impact that system element obsolescence has on a system baseline during the various system life cycle phases and provides a framework for affordable system evolution. Literature search and consolidation has articulated six integral components that comprise a comprehensive evolution framework through bottoms‐up obsolescence management of constituent system elements. Each of the obsolescence management components is tangibly addressed in terms of each system life cycle phase and the available tools and methods. Additionally, each of the obsolescence management framework components is analyzed for life cycle phase applicability and then extended further with the criticality and type of analysis to be done for that life cycle phase. In this way, a project can determine which studies to perform, while in a specific life cycle phase, that maximizes the insight of impending obsolescence for a particular system. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng