Straightforward Specification of Adaptation-Architecture-Significant Requirements of IoT-enabled Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

Adaptability is an inherent property in IoT-enabled cyber-physical systems because these should adjust themselves to evolving circumstances of their operation context. One key chal-lenge for architects is the identification and specification of simple and concise architecture significant requirements centered on ad-aptation that provide straightforward information needed for de-riving appropriate architecture decisions. To address this chal-lenge, we propose Adaptation Terms, which are blueprints com-prising a sufficient set of information to properly architect adapt-able IoT-enabled cyber-physical systems. The approach has been used by professionals from the domains of agricultural and con-struction machinery, medical devices, and telecommunication sys-tems, and a usage report describing the benefits and potential im-provements of the approach are described in this paper.