Strategic Views (StV) [Capability Views]

StV-1 Enterprise Vision

Note: The name of this product has been changed from “Strategic Vision”.

StV-1 addresses the enterprise concerns associated with the overall vision for transformational endeavours and thus defines the strategic context for a group of Enterprise capabilities.

Background:

The purpose of an StV-1 is to provide a strategic context for the capabilities described in the Architecture. It also provides a high-level scope for the Architecture which is more general than the scenario-based scope defined in an OV-1.

The Views are high-level and describe capabilities using terminology which is easily understood by non-technical readers (though they may make extensive use of military terminology and acronyms that are clearly defined in the AV-2 View).

Usage:

Data objects:

The data in an StV-1 can include:



Relationships Between Key Data Objects (Simplified from M3)

Representation:

Detailed Product Description:

The StV-1 Product defines the strategict context for a group of capabilities described in the Architecture by outlining the vision for a capability area over a bounded period of time. It describes how high level goals and strategy are to be delivered in capability terms.

An StV-1 may provide the blueprint for a transformational initiative. StV-1 Views may be primarily textual descriptions of the overarching objectives of the transformation or change programme that the Enterprise is engaged in. Of key importance is the identification of Enterprise Goals, together with the desired outcomes and measurable benefits associated with these.


StV-1 Text-Based Example

Recent changes to MODAF encourage the use of a more structured approach to StV-1.

The StV-1 also provides a high-level scope for the Architecture which is more general than the scenario-based scope defined in an OV-1 (which is typically based on a military or business scenario at a particular Enterprise Phase).

An StV-1 Capability Vision now has a preferred diagrammatic form – see the example below.


StV-1 Example View

This shows the Enterprise(s), Enterprise Goals and high-level Capabilities that are associated with these. The Goals can be further defined in terms of the benefits that are associated with measuring the fulfilment of the Goals.


StV-1 Enterprise Goals

The Enterprise Goals and Capabilities are ‘enduring’, that is they are intended to provide an enduring framework across the lifetime of the enterprise that is being modelled.

An Enterprise, on the other hand, is essentially time-bounded; it has a start and end date. It is broken into a set of phases for capability planning purposes. The time periods associated with these phases are sometimes referred to as ‘epochs’ although MODAF does not use this specific terminology.


StV-1 Enterprise Phases

It is necessary in MODAF to specifically tag an Enterprise Phase as being an Actual Enterprise Phase, meaning this relates to the As Is capability associated with the Enterprise. This is because it is not possible just to use the date information.

Each Enterprise has a type and an (enduring set of) capabilities are associated with this type. For example, the MOD ISTAR Enterprise is an example of a more general type of enterprise that might be called ‘network enabled ISTAR enterprise’. Instances of this type of enterprise will exist in NATO and other nations.

This type of enterprise has a generic set of capabilities, that will be common to all the specific instances. For this enterprise type, a generic capability is ‘Intelligence Gathering’. The MOD ISTAR Enterprise will therefore automatically have this capability and the enterprise management will need to consider the specific capability requirements and phasing of capability that meets the MOD’s needs, using StV-3 and other views. [The assignment of capabilities to common types of enterprises may be achieved through international agreements regarding ontology.]

Within the StV-1 view, certain Enterprise Goals are identified. These goals relate to the entire enterprise lifetime, they are not specific to an Enterprise Phase. Each goal may optionally include attributes associated with the measurable outcomes that relate to it – this is intended to provide a high-level link between enterprise management and benefits management.

As indicated in the figure above, an StV-1 may optionally also define a set of sub-enterprises that the Enterprise of interest has. This is important within a collaborative architecting community as it could be that a different organisation or team has responsibility for modelling one of the sub-enterprises.

An example here is that the MOD ISTAR Enterprise is a sub-enterprise of the MOD Defence Enterprise.

The information contained in an StV-1 View is most likely to have originated from operational concepts and research communities. The information will provide guidance on future capabilities and allow equipment capability specialists to identify future needs. The exception to this is when a MODAF Architecture is used to analyse an existing capability – e.g. when reverse engineering a system for integration or upgrade purposes. In this case, the StV-1 role changes slightly in that it will define what the original capability vision for the system was, and what capabilities are to be realised by the integration or upgrade.

The following figure provides an example that combines text and graphics.


StV-1 Enterprise Vision (Source: DCSA)

The StV-1 View is high-level in nature and does not specify the success criteria for the transformational initiative that is the subject of the Architecture. StV-2 provides metrics against each capability which may be used to measure successfully fielded capability.

Page version 1.1, dated 4th April 2007

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