Establishing a Network Centric Capability: Implications for Acquisition and Engineering

1. Establishing a Network Centric Capability: Implications for Acquisition and Engineering Dennis Smith Complex System Symposium January 11 -12, 2007

2. Agenda • The landscape • Strategies for implementing the network centric vision • Issues for a specific type of implementation: service-oriented architecture

3. The Reality of the Current Landscape • “Possibly the single-most transforming thing in our forces will not be a weapons system, buta set of interconnectionsand a substantially enhanced capability because of that awareness.” • —Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

4. Some Essential Differences

5. Strategies for Implementing the NCO Vision- 1 • Identify engineering implications of network centric missions • Determine types of information and steps necessary to perform the missions. • Understand the processes, capabilities, techniques, and system support used to perform analogous physical missions • Analyze the types of collaboration tools necessary to support network centric operations • e.g, the distribution of personnel across locations • Derive broad outcome spaces. • Adopt an inclusive view of the network centric community • Organizational components • Collaborating organizations • Open source communities • Vendor and standards organizations • Academic researchers • Potential end users and customers

6. Strategies for Implementing the NCO Vision- 2 • Characterize the existing technology base • Characterize technologies and capabilities in terms of being immediately useful, readily adaptable, and potential useful. • Develop a lightweight catalog of potential assets. • Develop capabilities to rapidly analyze and characterize components submitted to the catalog[ • Characterize the gaps between doctrine/mission and the technology base • Current operational capabilities • Current and planned operational needs • Needs that cannot currently be met • Activities we cannot coordinate

7. Strategies for Implementing the NCO Vision- 3 • Collaborate with others to develop governance rules • Establish a governance committee and encourage participation by all relevant participants. • Establish a network centric integration environment • focus on integration of components rather than new development. • Provide tools that support the integration of independently developed components. • e.g, tools that transform interfaces and data formats, or analyze and monitor interactions among components • Populate the environment with components that can be assembled to support network centric operations. • Investigate programs with success in building bridges between disparate systems.

8. Strategies for Implementing the NCO Vision- 4 • Establish appropriate reward structure • Reward participants for sharing problems, solutions, innovations, and technologies • Reward participants for reusing existing capabilities rather than developing their own • Reward solutions that minimally limit the flexibility of others (e.g., open interfaces are preferable to proprietary ones) • Train network centric command and engineering staff • Blur the distinction between operational and engineering support staff • Institute new curricula to train engineers with an emphasis on rapid integration and the use of relevant technologies such as SOA

9. Strategies for Implementing the NCO Vision- 5 • Prepare for novel forms of acquisition • Adopt an agile acquisition strategy that provides rapidly assembled solutions for short-term problems. • Prepare to acquire imperfect tools that can be used immediately rather than tools carefully crafted to meet rigid requirements. • Allow implementers and integrators significant freedom in developing solutions. • Expect organizational distinctions to become increasingly blurred

10. A Specific Type of Implementation: Service-Oriented Architecture • Service-oriented architecture is a way of designing systems that enables • Cost-efficiency • Agility • Adaptability • Leverage of legacy investments

11. Services • Services are reusable components that represent business tasks. • Customer lookup • Account lookup • Credit card validation • Credit check • Hotel reservation • Interest calculation • Services can be • Globally distributed across organizations • Reconfigured into new business processes

12. Internal Users Components of an SOA-Based System Application X Application Z Application Y Service D Internet SOA Infrastructure Development Tools Security Discovery Service C External System Service B Service A Legacy or New Code Enterprise Information System

13. Pillars of SOA-Based Systems Development SOA-Based Systems Development Strategic Alignment SOA Governance Technology Evaluation Change of Mindset SOA Design Principles