Overview: For T&E to provide the most relevant information for developing and fielding capabilities, planning should focus on gathering data for capability evaluation and decision-support. We propose an expansion of US DoD acquisition cycle's mandated Integrated Decision Support Key (IDSK) to a Decision Support Enterprise Framework (DSEF) which guides a structured decision-evaluation-data critical thought process throughout the full capability development lifecycle.
- Context: IDSK guides data collection from test and M&S events for a system’s operational and technical capabilities’ evaluation for operational and technical decision-support throughout acquisition lifecycle. As T&E expands outside the confines of the acquisition cycle to the full capability lifecycle, the DSEF provides the same expansion of the evaluation and decision-support.
- Purpose: The “art” and critical thought in DSEF development is properly articulating the decision space (i.e., What decision needs to be made? When does the decision need to be made? What is the essence of the information needed by the decision-maker to make an informed decision?) and aligning it with the appropriate capability evaluation and data sources. We describe the decision space as a concept moves from early capability development planning, through S&T and P&E, to PoR and Operational SoS Architecture mission delivery.
- Approach: This paper will describe the DSEF-IDSK thought process, highlight the DSEF’s two “E” (enterprise) flavors, illustrate notional decision spaces for the major segments of the capability development continuum, and give a very brief peek under the test at digital engineering implementation work in-progress at both the mission enterprise and system levels.
- Insights: The value of the DSEF is two-fold. First, the DSEF thought process guides the capability evaluation planning focused on informing decisions. Second, the DSEF process guides wargames and exercise planning with a more rigorous focus on gathering the data needed for evaluation and decision-support.