Can System of Systems Be Given Self-X Requirement Engineering Capabilities?

System of Systems (SoS) are a relatively recent phenomenon and present a whole new set of challenges for systems engineers. The system elements of an SoS are often managed and operated in a predominantly independent manner, over widely distributed geographic locations and are subject to evolution with various rates of change. The goals of the SoS itself often change over time. One purpose of this paper is to survey the literature on requirements management issues that are brought to the fore as a result of these and other SoS characteristics. We then explore a vision of how the key artefacts of requirements engineering might need to evolve, together with their supporting tools and processes, in order to better support the development, operation and maintenance of SoS’s. The vision is inspired by the autonomic computing paradigm, in which computing systems are equipped with self-x capabilities – such as self-configuration and self-healing – in order to manage themselves. Rather than presenting a solution our purpose is to better understand the new requirements engineering capabilities that will be required for SoS.