AbstractCollaborative systems are characterized by their interaction with other systems in collaborative system groups in order to reach a common goal. These systems interact based on fixed rules and have the ability to change structurally, if necessary. Changes in the collaboration are usually triggered from outside and are time-discrete with a rather wide time scale. The architectures of these systems and system groups must support flexibility and adaptability at runtime while also ensuring specific qualities, although these changes and their consequences cannot be fully foreseen in all combinations at design time.In order to enable knowledge preservation and reuse for the design of system architectures for flexible collaborative systems and system groups, we present a method for designing reference architectures for systems and system groups. For this approach, we present an example of a reference architecture for an operator assistance system. To adequately consider safety requirements during the design, we further introduce a method which adapts safety argumentation for flexible collaborative systems to changes in their specification or operating context.
Identifying Potential Social Impact of Collaborative Systems at Design Time