Application of Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) for Structuring Stakeholder Needs in Systems of Systems: The UAS Traffic Management Case Study

The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) poses new challenges to low-altitude airspace management, requiring UAS Traffic Management (UTM) ecosystems composed of multiple service providers (USSs) with operational and managerial independence. This configuration is typical of a System of Systems (SoS). This paper applies the Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) method to structure the main integration challenges perceived by three categories of stakeholders (regulators, USS providers, and drone operators) for a UTM ecosystem under development in Brazil. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the resulting Individual Cognitive Maps were aggregated into a Causal Map validated in a group workshop, which produced four emergent constructs, three of them absent from every individual interview. The Congregated Causal Map contains 29 nodes, 40 causal links, and five thematic clusters. The results provide structured stakeholder needs with causal traceability, serving as input to the formal Requirements Engineering process.