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Posted Monday, May 12, 2008
Maj. Anthony Jiovani, AFIT/LSB
Architecture in the DoD?
When most people think of architecture, their minds conjure images of Frank Lloyd Wright’s accomplishments, the Roman Coliseum, or the Egyptian pyramids. As we all know, the Department of Defense is seeking methods to operate more efficiently in an era of simultaneous warfighting and recapitalization. One of those methods actually adapts traditional architecture to something called capability architecture. The reasoning for this is the widespread belief that scores of defense systems are either redundant or do not meet operational needs. As a result, many recent acquisition reform efforts have been aimed at pursuing interoperable and cost-effective joint military capabilities (mcase.usmc.mil).
Traditional architects integrate structure and function with the environment. Their end products, the blueprints, merge various stakeholders’ visions and requirements into an acceptable product. They provide sheets, or views, that correspond to the homeowner, the plumber, the electrician, etc. We in the DoD are asked to perform this same trick with one exception: our structures are not houses and neighborhoods, but interoperable weapon systems and full-spectrum warfare.
Why should you care?
Embodied in law and various DoD mandates, architecture now supports capabilities based planning, requirements development, portfolio management, system development & acquisition, and information management. Below are a few of the growing number of defense architecture applications.
- The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System requires that each Capabilities Document have an annex with a standard DoD-formatted architecture – users and program offices partner to provide those architecture descriptions
- The Defense Acquisition System requires architecture to develop systems and manage interoperability
- Systems that communicate must have Information Support Plans, each accompanied by a complete integrated architecture
- DoD and Congress require architecture for defense business information systems that cost at least $1 million
Whether you are engaged in combat support or operations, you will likely need to “speak” architecture. Your staff-level counterparts and system developers will casually spout terms like OV-1 and Logical Data Model. It can be imposing gobbledygook. To help matters, the DoD uses the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) to standardize the format for architecture descriptions (https://dars1.army.mil/IER/index.jsp). And just as the home architect provides specific views to different tradesmen, the DoDAF prescribes views for various stakeholders of a given capability. There are twenty-six total views – Operational Views (OVs), Systems & Services Views (SVs), and Technical Standards Views (TV) – pictures, diagrams, and spreadsheets housed in an electronic database. The OVs communicate mission-level information and document operational requirements, from a user standpoint. The SVs communicate design-level information for use by designers and maintainers. Finally, the TVs document the information technology standards (building codes) that have been developed for net-centricity.
These architecture descriptions are the blueprints for a new age of human conflict and form key inputs for capabilities planners and acquirers. For the developer and operator alike, architecture guides the systems-of-systems engineering process as we navigate the depths of net-centric operations. DoDAF integrated architectures provide insight into these complex relationships and the associated operational requirements, interoperability issues, and systems-related issues (mcase.usmc.mil).
Hungry for more?
You’re in luck! AFIT/LS offers an introductory web course (SYS 183) and a live two-day course (SYS 283). The web course provides a short, broad overview and the live course focuses on how and when the DoD uses architecture descriptions for decision support. Other organizations provide additional courseware, depending on your interests and needs. Go to https://afkm.wpafb.af.mil/sys283arch for more information and related references.