Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 25 defence systeMs D efence Enterprise Systems (DESs) must be continually reengineered and improved to achieve excellence un- der stress in the increasingly complex, turbulent and fast-changing world in which we live. A DES is a gener- ic appellation used here to designate any sociotechnical system of interest within national defence organizations, ranging from large strategic units to much more focused cross-functional services. DESs must accomplish a mission in an evolving environment. In order to succeed, they use human, material and informational re- sources to provide services with the sup- port of Information Technology Systems (ITSs). ITSs are technical systems that, taken in isolation, add no value. They add value only when used in DESs to provide capabilities and improve service recipients' experiences in ways not otherwise possible. The use of ITSs must thus be justified by demonstrating that they help the DES in which they are embedded add value. They should not be engineered in isolation based on fixed rapidly outdated require- ment statements. They must be engineered as integral parts of a living DES providing evolving services. This is challenging, particularly in large interconnected organizations like DND- CAF. Although one would like to adapt DESs/ITSs to perceived political, eco- nomic, social, technological, legal and ecological (PESTLE) changes as quickly as possible, this is not without drawback. It can be difficult to determine if a ma- jor unexpected event or change of state is a temporary disruption (e.g. a service demand swing) or the symptom of a per- manent evolutionary shift (e.g. the emer- gence of the digital society). The systems developed must be agile and resilient to cope with disruptions, but changing their design in response to temporary events is counterproductive. Empowering agile multi-functional teams to adapt quickly to local conditions is an approach favored by many, but if applied blindly, without stra- tegic directions and a whole-system value driven architecture, it may destroy system synergy and even lead to a loss of purpose (c.f. Australia's special forces' abuse scan- dal – Foreign Policy, August 14, 2018). In addition, to collaborate efficiently with internal and external partners, prees- tablished interoperability standards must be followed, which requires some stability. Also, human beings have difficulty coping with complexity and change. A minimum of stability is required to allow internal/ex- ternal actors to learn and adapt to new DES processes and ITSs. Because of this, and because internal struggles induce myopia and hesitation, PESTLE changes tend to outpace organizational adaptation capac- ity. An approach to try to develop synergic, interoperable and adaptable DESs has been to base their implementation on a shared enterprise architecture (EA). However, specifying detailed all-encompassing EAs introduces rigidities and impedes imagina- tion and adaptiveness. Producing them is costly and time consuming, and it does not guarantee superior results. Being adaptive in a turbulent and fast- changing world and, concurrently, pre- serving interoperability and organizational concinnity seems an unsurmountable en- terprise development challenge. To develop robust value-creating DESs in this context, discerning methodological trade-offs must be reached, based on the proven strategy "Think Globally, Act Locally." Complexity reduction and rapid intervention methods must be found while shaping whole-system synergies and preserving interoperability. This relates to how: • DESs/ITSs are configured and de- scribed – EAs. • DESs/ITSs are examined, analyzed, ori- ented, designed and implemented during their lifecycle – enterprise development (ED). • Development resources are organized, and engineering decisions are made. Making educated methodological trade- offs and adopting an insightful enterprise development posture under evolving stakeholders' needs, finite resources and progressing ED-EA maturity levels, is an important top-management responsibility. In large organizations such as DND-CAF, this responsibility is typically partially dele- gated to strategically located Development Methodology Authorities (DMAs). Our aim in this short article is to examine some of the issues to consider when elaborating a strategic ED-EA posture and to outline an approach to develop robust value-creating DES/ITSs for a complex, turbulent and fast-changing world. DES/itS Architecture DESs, and their embedded ITSs, evolve continually, and during their lifecycle, one

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