Self-improving system integration: Mastering continuous change
Kirstie L. Bellman, Jean Botev, Ada Diaconescu, Lukas Esterle, Christian Gruhl, Christopher Landauer, Peter R. Lewis, Phyllis R. Nelson, Evangelos Pournaras, Anthony Stein, Sven Tomforde
Abstract
The research initiative “self-improving system integration” (SISSY) was established with the goal to master the ever-changing demands of system organisation in the presence of autonomous subsystems, evolving architectures, and highly-dynamic open environments. It aims to move integration-related decisions from design-time to run-time, implying a further shift of expertise and responsibility from human engineers to autonomous systems. This introduces a qualitative shift from existing self-adaptive and self-organising systems, moving from self-adaptation based on predefined variation types, towards more open contexts involving novel autonomous subsystems, collaborative behaviours, and emerging goals.\n\n\n\nIn this article, we revisit existing SISSY research efforts and establish a corresponding terminology focusing on how SISSY relates to the broad field of integration sciences. We then investigate SISSY-related research efforts and derive a taxonomy of SISSY technology. This is concluded by establishing a research road-map for developing operational self-improving self-integrating systems.