Navigating Development of Cyber-Physical Systems through Inconsistency Scenarios

The development of cyber-physical systems (CPS) is characterized by high complexity,
heterogeneous engineering artifacts, and strong cross-domain dependencies, making the achieving of
consistency an inevitable part of engineering practice. While existing approaches primarily focus on
detecting and resolving inconsistencies, engineers often need to understand, assess, and navigate them
as part of ongoing decision-making. In practice, however, methodological support for dealing with
inconsistency is limited and frequently depends on expert availability.
This paper proposes a scenario-based approach to support engineers and project managers in managing
inconsistency in CPS development. Building on previously identified key factors for inconsistency
occurrence, inconsistency scenarios are derived using established scenario creation techniques and
implemented in both expert-based and AI-supported assessment formats. The approach enables
structured self-assessment and reflection on development environments without requiring immediate
inconsistency resolution. The proposed support is evaluated in a LiveLab study using a questionnaire-
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based evaluation within an ASD Innovation format. The results indicate that inconsistency scenarios
effectively raise awareness of inconsistency-related risks, support self-assessment, and facilitate
structured discussion of (in-)consistency management in complex CPS development contexts. By
combining scenario-based reasoning with AI-supported assessment, this work contributes a scalable and
human-centered decision support approach for Advanced Systems Engineering.