Building Enterprise Transition Plans Through the Development of Collapsing Design Structure Matrices

The United States Air Force (USAF), like many other large enterprises, has evolved over time, expanded its capabilities and has developed focused, yet often redundant, operational silos, functions and information systems (IS). Recent failures in enterprise integration efforts herald a need for a new method that can account for the challenges presented by decades of increases in enterprise complexity, redundancy and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs. Product or system-level research has dominated the study of traditional Design Structure Matrices (DSMs) with minimal coverage on enterprise-level issues. This research proposes a new method of collapsing DSMs (C-DSMs) to illustrate and mitigate the problem of enterprise IS redundancy while developing a systems integration plan. Through the use of iterative user constraints and controls, the C-DSM method employs an algorithmic and unbiased approach that automates the creation of a systems integration plan that provides not only a roadmap for complexity reduction, but also cost estimates for milestone evaluation. Inspired by a recent large IS integration program, an example C-DSM of 100 interrelated legacy systems was created. The C-DSM method indicates that if a slow path to integration is selected then cost savings are estimated to surpass integration costs after several iterations

2018 Faculty Excellence Showcase, AFIT Graduate School of Engineering & Management

Excerpt: As an academic institution, we strive to meet and exceed the expectations for graduate programs and laud our values and contributions to the academic community. At the same time, we must recognize, appreciate, and promote the unique non-academic values and accomplishments that our faculty team brings to the national defense, which is a priority of the Federal Government. In this respect, through our diverse and multi-faceted contributions, our faculty, as a whole, excel, not only along the metrics of civilian academic expectations, but also along the metrics of military requirements, and national priorities

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2009

This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems and Engineering Management, Operational Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics and Engineering Physics

Academic Year 2019-2020 Faculty Excellence Showcase, AFIT Graduate School of Engineering & Management

An excerpt from the Dean\u27s Message: There is no place like the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). There is no academic group like AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. Although we run an educational institution similar to many other institutions of higher learning, we are different and unique because of our defense-focused graduate-research-based academic programs. Our programs are designed to be relevant and responsive to national defense needs. Our programs are aligned with the prevailing priorities of the US Air Force and the US Department of Defense. Our faculty team has the requisite critical mass of service-tested faculty members. The unique composition of pure civilian faculty, military faculty, and service-retired civilian faculty makes AFIT truly unique, unlike any other academic institution anywhere

Interoperability Measurement

This research presents an inaugural general method of measuring the collaborative and confrontational interoperability of a heterogeneous set of systems in the context of an operational process. The method is holistic, fundamental, flexible, and mathematical in nature and accommodates all types of systems and interoperations. The method relates the interoperability measurement to measures of operational effectiveness for confrontational operational processes. Extant leveling methods of describing interoperability are shown to be a special case of the more general method given in this research and the general interoperability measurement method is demonstrated through the presentation of coalition interoperability, suppression of enemy air defenses, and precision strike applications. Further application is recommended in technical, non-technical, cross-domain, and non-traditional interoperability areas and additional research is suggested on the topics of indirect interoperability measurement and collaborative interoperability impact on operational effectiveness

Design of a Framework to Measure the Degree of Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) Simulation Interoperability

Accomplishment of the Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation interoperability has been a major goal and a challenge in the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) community. There have been efforts to interoperate individual Live, Virtual and Constructive simulations within a common synthetic environment through suitable technologies such as interface specifications, protocols, and standard middleware architectures. However, achieving interoperability of LVC simulation is a technologically complex since it is affected by multiple factors, and the characteristics are not yet satisfactorily defined and studied. A proper method is absent to measure the potential interoperability degree of LVC simulation. Therefore, there should be an appropriate systematic approach to measure the potential LVC simulation interoperability which includes technical, conceptual and organizational domains. This research aims to design a preliminary systematic approach to measure the potential interoperability degree of an individual Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation and a relevant organization which plans to use the simulation system for simulation interoperability. Specifically, a framework that contains components such as a) LVC simulation interoperability domains, b) interoperability domain factors, c) interoperability maturity levels, d) interoperability determination method is proposed. To accomplish the goal, a set of factors that determine the interoperability degree in LVC simulation environment are identified, and the factors are used to build the key elements of the framework. The proposed methodology for the framework design is based on systematic literature reviews and a survey involving a number of relevant domain experts. A case study is demonstrated to prove the validity and effectiveness of the developed framework. The case study illustrates how the interoperability levels of a simulation system and a relevant organization are effectively measured. This research potentially contributes by providing an understanding of the factors that determine the interoperability degree of LVC simulation, improvement of the LVC simulation interoperability measurement process, and consequently, accomplishment of more effective LVC simulation interoperability

Evaluating systems of systems against mission requirements

This thesis investigates the nature of systems problems and the need for an open viewpoint to explain a system by viewing it as part of a larger whole and explaining its role in terms of that larger whole. The problem this research investigates is wicked and hence is unique in each instance. Therefore, an empirical proof would only hold for that particular instantiation of the problem, not the problem as a whole. After exposing some of the limitations of traditional systems engineering to this type of problem it is clear that a new approach is needed. The approach taken in the thesis is model driven and it is the architecture of this approach that is the stable artefact rather than the artefacts of a particular solution. The approach developed in this research has been demonstrated to be practicable. Specifically, this research has developed and demonstrated a novel approach for a decision support system that can be used to analyse a system of systems as part of a larger whole from both open and closed viewpoints in order to support the decision of which systems to use to conduct a particular military mission. Such planning decisions are wicked due to the uncertain and unique nature of military missions. Critical rationalism was used to validate the model driven approach and to falsify a parametric approach representative of traditional systems engineering through historical case studies. The main issue found with the parametric approach was the entanglement of functionality with the individual systems selected to implement the system of systems. The advantage of the model driven approach is that it separates functionality from implementation and uses model transformation for systems specification. Thus, although wicked problems do not have an exhaustively describable set of potential solutions this thesis has shown that they are not unapproachable