Background and Introduction
Why use MODAF?
There is an increase in the need to support flexible, highly responsive joint and coalition operations and a growing need to deliver end to end military capability, whilst delivering more for less and ensuring interoperability.
“Our need in the future is for flexible and adaptable armed forces properly supported to carry out the most likely expeditionary operations” Rt. Hon G Hoon MP July 2004 – Defence white paper ‘Delivering security in a changing world’
NEC
Military strategies and systems have become far more complex. Although ad-hoc acquisition will still occur, the conflict between satisfying short term needs and addressing the issues of increasing medium and long term complexity needs to be firmly managed. Projects and programmes now link and overlap. There are multiple operational, technical, and service boundaries emerging, which must be managed coherently and there is overlapping functionality in subsystems.
NEC is a key component of efforts to meet changing requirements. NEC enables the military to federate systems, sensors, and effectors and, hence, to improve overall military effectiveness.
“NEC is the linking of sensors, decision makers and weapon systems so that information can be translated into synchronised and overwhelming military effect at optimum tempo” Capability Manager (Information Superiority), CM(IS), July 2002
Architecting for NEC
There is a requirement for a more structured approach to the management of complexity and a concomitant requirement to balance all relevant user perspectives. Architectural frameworks support such requirements, and the most mature and widely adopted Architectural Framework in the defence sector is DoDAF which has been developed over a number of years by the US Department of Defense (DoD).
CM(IS) recognised DoDAF as the most appropriate Architectural Framework in his NEC Next Steps Paper to the Joint Capabilities Board (JCB).
“Working with major stakeholders (DG(Info), DCSA, IA and others) DEC CCII has identified the US Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) as the most appropriate framework to underpin the development of NEC.” CM(IS), NEC Next Steps Paper, April 03
Need for Architecture Modelling
Nobody would build a house or other building without architecture drawings, relying solely on lists of textual requirement statements. Yet defence systems, which are far more costly and complex than houses, are frequently acquired in that way, often with serious consequences for cost, functionality and interoperability. An architecture is essential in order to ensure correct and consistent acquisition. It can also serve several other purposes, such as:
- To catalogue the enterprise’s purpose and how it achieves that purpose.
- To improve the communication of ideas.
- To provide a means of managing the knowledge about an enterprise.
- To enable effective re-use of the processes of the enterprise and its applications and infrastructure.
- To have a road-map of how the enterprise will evolve.
Advantages of MODAF
DoDAF has its origins in the C4ISR community and is seen as a fundamental part of the DoD drive towards Net-Centric Warfare (NCW). The MOD Architectural Framework (MODAF) is based on the DoDAF specification and therefore retains compatability with US modelling initiatives.
MODAF is specifically designed to support Architecture Modelling for the MOD business. MODAF uses aspects of the existing DoDAF together with additional Viewpoints that are required to support UK MOD processes, procedures, and organisational structures. It provides a rigorous method for understanding, analysing, and specifying: Capabilities, Systems, Systems of Systems (SoS), Organisational Structures and Business Processes. As such, it is particularly well placed to facilitate the successful delivery of NEC.
The key benefits that MODAF delivers are improvements to the specification and implementation of interoperability between Systems. MODAF supports a wide variety of MOD processes, including: capability management, acquisition and sustainment.
Conclusion
The careful and relevant application of MODAF to Defence Architecting problems – whether they be related to Acquisition, Deployment, Sustainment, or some other area of the MOD enterprise, can reap dividends in terms of more effective problem resolution and improved communication between stakeholders. Moreover, the investment in developing architecture models should not be seen as a burden. Rather, it should be seen as having the potential to reduce cost and effort in the long term, as a result of the greater probability of getting things right first time and a reduced need for costly re-work.
Page version 1.1, dated 4th April 2007