Improvement/Extension of Modular Systems as Combinatorial Reengineering
  (Survey)
  The paper describes development (improvement/extension) approaches for
composite (modular) systems (as combinatorial reengineering). The following
system improvement/extension actions are considered: (a) improvement of systems
component(s) (e.g., improvement of a system component, replacement of a system
component); (b) improvement of system component interconnection
(compatibility); (c) joint improvement improvement of system components(s) and
their interconnection; (d) improvement of system structure (replacement of
system part(s), addition of a system part, deletion of a system part,
modification of system structure). The study of system improvement approaches
involve some crucial issues: (i) scales for evaluation of system components and
component compatibility (quantitative scale, ordinal scale, poset-like scale,
scale based on interval multiset estimate), (ii) evaluation of integrated
system quality, (iii) integration methods to obtain the integrated system
quality. The system improvement/extension strategies can be examined as
seleciton/combination of the improvement action(s) above and as modification of
system structure. The strategies are based on combinatorial optimization
problems (e.g., multicriteria selection, knapsack problem, multiple choice
problem, combinatorial synthesis based on morphological clique problem,
assignment/reassignment problem, graph recoloring problem, spanning problems,
hotlink assignment). Here, heuristics are used. Various system
improvement/extension strategies are presented including illustrative numerical
examples.
