Innovations in understanding the whole of Australian defence system of systems

Bulluss, Gary; Ο'Shea, Kevin Ε.; Tay, Nicholas; Pong, Peter

doi:10.1109/sysose.2014.6892483

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Program Viewer is a prototype Defence decision support tool for whole of portfolio capability management that focuses on schedule, cost, personnel and capability (Bulluss et al, 2014, O'Shea et al, 2012. Rather than designing a system based on ideal or perfect information, information is instead gathered from data sets currently used by Defence groups and fused to provide a situational picture, referred to as Defence capability situation awareness.…”

Section: Program Viewermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Close interaction with stakeholders has enabled access to a rich source of Defence portfolio data covering schedule, cost, personnel and capability (Bulluss et al, 2014, O'Shea et al, 2012 for populating a Unified Profile for DoDAF 1 and MODAF 2 (UPDM) (Hause, 2010) compliant repository. Designed around an organisational information-centric paradigm, Program Viewer improves decision by accessing stovepipe repositories and enabling information visualisation through various charts (such as Gantt, line, pie and layered).…”

Section: Program Viewermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Supporting Force Structure Review through graph visualisation and capability view improvements

2015

Weber, T., McPhee, M.J. And Anderssen, R.S. (Eds) MODSIM2015, 21st International Congress on Modelling and Simulation

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Program Viewer is a prototype Defence decision support tool for whole of portfolio capability management that focuses on schedule, cost, personnel and capability. The tool has already supported a number of decision-making activities in Defence including the current and previous Force Structure Reviews. Close interaction with stakeholders has enabled access to a rich source of Defence portfolio data for populating a Unified Profile for DoDAF and MODAF (UPDM) (Hause, 2010) compliant repository. So far, Program Viewer has facilitated understanding of project costs and slippage, scheduled milestones and milestone relationships between projects, and potential issues (Bulluss et al., 2014, Lo et al., 2015). Our software tool has been augmented herein with temporal graph visualisation (Lo et al., 2011, Lo et al., 2009) to support exploratory analysis of the taxonomy of Defence capabilities and capital acquisition projects juxtaposed with cost information. Through employing the Java universal network/graph (JUNG) toolkit (O'Madadhain et al., 2005), the prototype supports graph visualisation through (a) spring, (b) Fruchterman-Rheingold (1991), (c) Kamada-Kawai (1989), (d) circle and (e) Inverted Self-Organising Map (Meyer, 1998) layouts. Temporal mode enables users to visualise the graph evolving over time, gaining an improved understanding of relative budget allocation to projects on a year-by-year basis. By scaling node areas proportionally to project costs (total or on a yearly basis), relative budget allocation to projects can be quickly gleaned from the graph. Customisable node shape and colour, and ability to zoom and filter out data by context promote greater understanding of data from different perspectives. An adapted capability view (CV-3) based on the DoDAF viewpoints has also been implemented. As project numbers within the repository increased, the understanding of project dependencies and interrelationships has correspondingly become more complex. The CV-3 provides an improved contextual understanding of projects mapped against capability, simplifying the visualisation for decision-makers. Our prototype tool provides a unique capability that merges data that is typically held locally within Defence groups, processes the information and provides visualisations that improve management of the whole-of-life capability systems lifecycle. The First Principles Review (2015) recommendations for enhancing performance and accountability of Defence capability acquisition and sustainment, and enterprise-wide information management have highlighted the need for improved focus in the area that Program Viewer seeks to innovate in.

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Section: Program Viewermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Program Viewermentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Force Structure Review through graph visualisation and capability view improvements

2015

Weber, T., McPhee, M.J. And Anderssen, R.S. (Eds) MODSIM2015, 21st International Congress on Modelling and Simulation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…For instance, the Defence Preparedness Management Information System (DPMIS) Suite (DPMIS 2015) comprises a suite of tools that capture and present data for preparedness reporting and analysis. Program Viewer (Bulluss, Tay et al 2014) is a another Defence decision support tool providing a rich visualization of Defence capability scheduling, costing, personnel, and project slippage. The Capability Development Management and Reporting Tool (CDMRT) (CDMRT 2015) is an information-collection tool in which data is entered by project managers and used by various stakeholders to aggregate decision support information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Defence strategic data planning

2015

Weber, T., McPhee, M.J. And Anderssen, R.S. (Eds) MODSIM2015, 21st International Congress on Modelling and Simulation

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Defence generates and receives vast quantities of data in relation to the specification, development and intended operation of its capabilities and related decision processes. As an organisation, Defence has made good progress in the collection and availability of these types of data; however, the growing pace of technological advancement and the rapid evolution of the spectrum of potential adversaries mean that Defence must become even more effective and efficient in its data analytics to ensure agile decision making at all levels of the organisation. Achieving this objective requires focused strategic data planning, rigorous data design, speedy and accurate data collection, and effective data validation, processing, and management. Current Defence data management practices in Australia do not, for example, provide a unified asset identification number, nor a unified asset naming convention, leading to confusion and ambiguity in the provision of timely and accurate advice to decision makers. This is in part due to the lack of rigorous definitions, data structures and effective data management mechanisms and policies, making universal data integration difficult. This also increases the risk of inconsistencies between Defence's many data repositories. Based on reviewing data management practices of Defence organisation internationally, the authors argue that the Australian Defence Organisation needs an improved strategic data planning mechanism in order to develop a more holistic and effective approach to managing its capability-related data. We propose a framework based on review of the literature and best practices internationally, as well as our experience in analytical support of Force Design and capability-related decision processes, albeit being mindful of the evolving structure of Defence as the implementation of First Principles Review is taking shape. The value proposition of the framework is four-fold: (1) it proposes an iterative strategic data planning process that helps to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of data management in support of effective decision making, (2) it provides a set of guidelines for developing a strategic data plan, helping to facilitate and streamline data management across the organisation, (3) it provides guidelines for data design, collection, and management, as well as resource planning, and (4) it helps develop consistent capture of 'quality' information and other critical data required for Defence capability planning. Our framework is intended to be useful to strategic data planners and data managers working at different levels of Defence, and will also better support robust analytics for capability planning. This can, in turn, help reduce costs in data management but, more importantly, enhance Defence's capability development and trade-off decision processes.

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Innovations in understanding the whole of Australian defence system of systems

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Supporting Force Structure Review through graph visualisation and capability view improvements

Supporting Force Structure Review through graph visualisation and capability view improvements

Towards Defence strategic data planning

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