Task: Identify needed time budget segments
The task Identify needed time budget segments refines the time budgets from the higher abstraction level with respect to the more detailed solution structure that has been developed at this abstraction level, and with respect to the distribution of components to suppliers if applicable.
Relationships
InputsMandatory: Optional:
  • None
External:
  • None
Outputs
Main Description

The task Identify needed time budget segments refines the time budgets from the higher abstraction level with respect to the more detailed solution structure that has been developed at this abstraction level, and with respect to the distribution of components to suppliers if applicable. Note that the task only identifies which refinements (segments) would be necessary for passing on as budget requirements to the next abstraction level. It does not make any estimations on exact numbers, i.e. exactly how long budget should be assigned to a certain segment.

An extreme case would be to create a segment for each function/component that is in the scope of a certain time budget. However, in the case that several suppliers are involved in implementing two or more consecutive functions/components, such an approach might be too restrictive and impose unnecessary constraints. It is sufficient to provide one overall time budget for all consecutive components in the time budget event chain. If such an approach is not compliant with respect to another time budget requirement, the approach cannot be applied. Figure 1 illustrates this approach with an example.

 

Figure 1 - Example of a budget segment identification strategy

The example in Figure 1 contains three functions. Function A is to be implemented by supplier 1, and functions B and C by supplier 2. The chain of these three functions has a time budget of 100ms. This overall budget will by this task be divided into two segments, one for each supplier. The time bounds in these segments are still unknown, as indicated by the variables X and Y (see Symbolic time expressions).

 

Properties
Predecessor
Multiple Occurrences
Event Driven
Ongoing
Optional
Planned
Repeatable