IIC Business Strategy and Solution Lifecycle
of metrics, both internationally (e.g., JTC1/SC38) for the Cloud computing space, as well as
nationally (e.g., NIST in US). The goal is to facilitate the adoption of similar metrics across service
providers. We expect IIoT systems will follow the same trend.
A consistent set of metrics for both functional and non-functional aspects of an IIoT solution will
ultimately impact all phases of the solution lifecycle, to include:
2.1.3
Contractual: Metrics are fundamental to the contractual aspect of IIoT systems. For cloud
computing, SLAs will be based on the evaluation of performance indicators such as
response times, data transfers, Quality of Service; and characteristics such as reliability
(availability percentage), timeliness, security (e.g., monitoring of violations) and more.
Such contracts are not just between IIoT solution providers and industry business
managers. They are also between all parties involved in supporting and governing various
parts of a solution.
System design: Metrics will also be the basis for classifying IIoT systems based on such
aspects as scale, real-time capability, data-intensive aspects, in and out data flow
characteristics, overall distribution and number and complexity of asset monitoring. This
will lead to establishing profiles of such systems, and possibly categories or taxonomies.
In turn, typical profiles can be associated with best practices for specific architecture
patterns and technologies.
Testing and simulation: Before a large-scale deployment, a solution will undergo quality
assurance in all forms of testing (unit, integration, performance, acceptance). Indicators
of success will in turn rely as much on quantitative measures as on functional adequacy.
Change management: Given the expected volatility of the industrial context of IIoT (e.g.,
number and type of assets and devices will evolve over time, business context may change
including regulations) it is expected that each IIoT system will evolve. As such, monitoring
and testing must take place on a continual basis using the same initial metrics over the
system life-cycle to ensure continuity of system performance and characteristics. As
knowledge grows, additional metrics will naturally follow, but for a complete system lifecycle analysis, the initial metrics must be preserved.
BSSL LIBRARIES
A key goal of the BSSL WG is to create a library of reusable artifacts for IIoT project managers and
architects. Two of these key artifacts are design templates and solution metrics.
Design Template Library
The BSSL design template library provides templates for IIoT project managers and solution
architects to help them create project specification documents as well as higher-level entries for
the project backlog (e.g., epics) (see figure 11).
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December 2015