Vanguard Magazine

Vanguard February/March 2020

Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR

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defence systeMs www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 27 A modeling formalism is a visual (e.g. diagram, plot), tabular (e.g. spreadsheet, database), textual (e.g. pseudocode, form) and/or mathematical notation and syntax used to describe DES views. To be use- ful, a descriptive model must be synthetic, rigorous, easy to produce and manipulate, and easy to understand. Abstraction refers to the extraction of the essence of a DES to make its understanding or reengineer- ing more insightful and substantial. Mod- eling is usually performed at three abstrac- tion levels. At the top, conceptual models shape concepts and ideas; at the bottom, physical models display specific objects. In between, logical models define the logic of the methods used to perform processes (services) and their use of resource types (no attention is paid to specific resources). A modeling formalism can be telescopic, to provide a holistic view without details, or microscopic, to describe a component in detail. Business shaping views tend to be more holistic conceptual or logical representations. System component speci- fications are more detailed logical or physi- cal representations. When studying an existing DES, one proceeds bottom-up, from the physical to the conceptual. When designing a To-Be DES, one proceeds top-down, from the conceptual to the physical. The essence of reinforced DESs emerges from strategic reorientations and generalizations at the conceptual level where the vulnerabilities, plausible future scenarios and strategic di- rections identified shed light on what must be done to create a design assuring sus- tained value-creation. Determining what to represent formally at different levels and how is the responsibility of the DMA. It involves the adoption of development policies and of an EA-Framework, a formal specification of what an EA should contain. It usually includes a concept's metamodel (ontology), crucial viewpoint and formal- ism descriptions, and rules to document EAs. Since DESs are living organisms, in time, during development/improvement initia-tives, several fit-for-purpose EA ver- sions are elaborated (As-Is EA, To-Be EA can-didates, Transition EAs, etc.). These EAs must be memorized to enable rigor- ous interventions, knowledge transfer and maintenance. A formal EA-Repository (EAR) congruent with the EA-Framework must thus be implemented to retain evolv- ing DES design descriptions. Adaptability and Adaptiveness DESs must perform their mission in com- plex evolving environments characterized by increasing PESTLE constraints, distur- bances and threats, by turbulent and shift- ing service recipient needs, by dynamic adversary and ally strategies, and by imper- fect enabler services. These are the source of incessant unexpected events taking the form of temporary disruptions (e.g. a burst in service demand), or of permanent evo- lutionary shifts (e.g. a new type of threat made possible by cutting edge technolo- gies). Take the recent waves of illegal mi- grant crossings into Canada as an exam- ple. Addressing such a burst in demand is not possible with standard processes and resources. However, a well-designed sys- tem can scale its resources up temporar- ily, reassign existing resources quickly, and have access to external re-courses, such as CAF assets, to maintain reasonable service times until the situation comes back to normal. A system capable of coping effi- ciently with major disruptions is said to be adaptable. This requires readiness, agility and resilience. On the other hand, many believe that migrant flows will continue to increase as people flee from failed states to seek a better life. Such an evolutionary shift cannot be addressed with temporary recourses. It requires lasting changes in resources and processes (e.g. building per- manent migrant residences near borders and changing processes to accelerate the dispatching of admitted migrants to host cities). However, mistakenly interpreting this increased demand as a permanent shift would be a substantial error. DESs capable of detecting definite shifts and per-forming required changes quickly and efficiently are said to be adaptive. This necessitates fore- sight and resolve. Since efficient recourses are needed until the shift is definitively ac- knowledged, adaptability is a prerequisite to adaptiveness. Time is an essential element here. Dis- ruptions and evolutionary shifts arise in continuous time. PESTLE problems and opportunities continually emerge, and suc- cessive governments adjust laws, policies, programs and services to cope with them. Thus, to fulfill their mission, DESs need to adapt continuously. Unfortunately, in real life, DES can only adapt in discrete time, and they often exhibit inertia (incapacity Figure 2: DES Lifecycle

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