Strategic Views (StV) [Capability Views]

StV-2 Capability Taxonomy

The StV-2 Product models capability taxonomies.

Background:

The view presents a hiearchy of capabilities. These capabilities may be presented in context of an Enterprise Phase – i.e. it can show the required capabilities for current and future enterprises. StV-2 specifies all the capabilities that are reference throughout one or more architectures. In addition it can be used as a source document for the development of highlevel use cases and Key User Requirements (KUR).

Usage:

Data objects:

The data in an StV-2 can include:



Relationships Between Key Data Objects (Simplified from M3)

Representation:

Detailed Product Description:

The Capability Taxonomy (StV-2) View specifies a hiearchy of capabilities. A capability taxonomy persists over time (an architect may wish to specify historical, current or future capability) and may be referenced by multiple architectures. The capabilities specified in an StV-2 are extensively re-used in operational, system and acquisition views – in this way, the concept of capability is integral to any MODAF architecture.

In MODAF, a Capability is a description of an ability to do something. In StV-2, the Capabilities are only described in the abstract – i.e. StV-2 does not specify how a capability is to be implemented. An StV-2 is structured as a specialisation hiearchy of capabilities, with the most general at the root and most specific at the leaves. At the leaf level, capabilities may have a metric specified, along with an environmental qualifier for the metric:


StV-2 Example with Leaf Metrics

Note that capabilities with a metric specified may not be further specialised. When capabilities are referenced in operational or systems architectures, it may be that a particular Node (OV-2) or Capability Configuration (SV-1) meets more than one level of capability.

Like AV-2, StV-2 is related to MODAF Ontology.

The StV-2 View is used to capture and organise the capability functions – required for the vision set out in the Capability Vision View (StV-1) – into a structured list.

StV-2 is a capability taxonomy view. StV-4 is the view that describes dependencies between the capabilities shown in the StV-2 taxonomy.

In contrast to AV-2, an StV-2 is structured using only one type of specialisation relationship between elements: sub-supertype. A sub-supertype relationship is a relationship between two classes with the second being a pure specialisation of the first.

In MODAF Capabilities are ‘enduring’, that is they are intended to provide an enduring framework across the lifetime of the enterprise that is being modelled. This means that it is feasible to develop a capability taxonomy that will apply to all Enterprise Phases.


Example StV-2

In addition to the capability nomenclature, appropriate quantitative attributes and metrics for that specific capability or function needs to be included e.g. the required speed of processing, the rate of advance, the maximum detection range, etc. These attributes and metrics will remain associated with the capability whenever it is used across the MODAF framework. The quantitative values expressed may be linked to specific Enterprise Phases (or be ‘as-is’ values and/or or ‘to-be’ targets). This is illustrated below.


Example StV-2 with metrics

The StV-2 View has no mandated structure although the format selected must be able to support the representation of a structured/hierarchal list. This structure may be delivered using textual, tabular or graphical methods. The associated attributes and metrics for each capability can either be included on the main StV-2 View, or in tabular format as an appendix if the inclusion of the attributes and metrics would over complicate the presentation of the View.

UML is a good modelling language in which to develop capability taxonomies as the object oriented approach naturally includes the concept of generalisation-specialisation.



Extended Defence Capability Framework (as specified by DCDC Joint Concepts)

Page version 1.1, dated 4th April 2007

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