System Adaptability

Overview

Dictionary Definition

The term adapt means “to make fit (as for a new use) often by modification” (Merriam-Webster, Inc.). The term adaptation is traditionally used in natural ecosystems as “modification of an organism or its parts that makes it more fit for existence under the conditions of its environment” where the conditions can be either positive or negative (Andersen & Gronau, 2005).

Systems Engineering Meaning

Following the dictionary definition, System Adaptability is a system’s ability to satisfy mission and requirement changes, with or without modifications (Zhu, 2015) (Jackson, 2016) (Zhu, et al., 2016). A system is more adaptable if it supports mission and requirement changes at less cost which is an indication how difficult a system is to adapt.

The adaptability concept is applicable to both real and conceptual systems as defined in (Sillitto, Hillary, et al. , 2017).

There are concepts that are related to system adaptability such as system resilience, flexible design, and design reuse. System resilience has traditionally focused on graceful degradation and recovery of a system's performance, triggered by adverse events and planned for in advance. System adaptability focuses on solutions for changes caused by either adversarial or beneficial events. Flexible design in industrial engineering (Saleh, Mark, & Jord, 2009) often requires up-front investment and justification of redundant designs or facilities, with more than 50 kinds of flexibilities defined and studied. System adaptability looks into future changes to inform the current design choices for reduction of unnecessarily redundant designs. System adaptability encourages reuse, but does not promote it at the expense of higher cost.