Maintainability

Notes

What does "maintainability" mean?
Davius emphasizes four aspects of maintainability that CAV Systems must address: diagnosis and repair; tuning; requirements pull; and technology push.
Diagnosis and repair
In any system comprising mechanical and electrical components, things will break, but It is critical that CAV Systems be kept operational and safe. CAVWAY components will be the responsibility of CAV-System management. Diagnosis of problems may at times be aided by CSIM. Rapid repair will be necessary to sustainability. In general, CAV owners will fix CAV problems.
Tuning
CAV Systems, which comprise multiple parts, will benefit from analysis and tuning to allow them to work more efficiently as systems.
Requirements pull
Continual improvement will be fundamental to the sustainability of CAV Systems. Requirements pull (part tuning), leading to the acquisition of new hardware and software, is fundamental to continual improvement.
Technology push
New technology, the result of research which may or may not be in response to CAV-System requirements, can also be part of continual improvement.

It is important to distinguish between the idea of fixing and tuning an existing system and continually upgrading it. However, with respect to system design, the two are closely related.
A modular design, based on well-defined, stable interfaces, enables change with minimal disruption. It also enables rapid diagnosis of errors and tuning issues. Once a problem has been isolated to a particular system component, it is possible to decide whether it can be resolved through a software correction or a more capable part may be required. In the latter case, a "make or buy" decision may be called for.
To repeat the point, modularity supports maintainability.