Department of Defense Architecture Framework
These views are artifacts for visualizing, understanding, and assimilating the broad scope and complexities of an architecture description through tabular, structural, behavioral, ontological, pictorial, temporal, graphical, probabilistic, or alternative conceptual means.
This Architecture Framework is especially suited to large systems with complex integration and interoperability challenges, and it is apparently unique in its employment of "operational views".
It establishes data element definitions, rules, and relationships and a baseline set of products for consistent development of systems, integrated, or federated architectures.
Conformance ensures that reuse of information, architecture artifacts, models, and viewpoints can be shared with common understanding.
All major U.S. DoD weapons and information technology system acquisitions are required to develop and document an enterprise architecture (EA) using the views prescribed in the DoDAF.
It addressed the 1995 Deputy Secretary of Defense directive that a DoD-wide effort be undertaken to define and develop a better means and process for ensuring that C4ISR capabilities were interoperable and met the needs of the warfighter.
[1] In August 2003 the DoDAF v1.0 was released, which restructured the C4ISR Framework v2.0 to offer guidance, product descriptions, and supplementary information in two volumes and a Desk Book.
[1] In February 2004 the documentation of Version 1.0 was released with volume "I: Definitions and Guidelines", "II: Product Descriptions" and a "Deskbook".
Like other EA approaches, for example The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), DoDAF is organized around a shared repository to hold work products.
The DoDAF V1.5 defines a set of products, a view model, that act as mechanisms for visualizing, understanding, and assimilating the broad scope and complexities of an architecture description through graphic, tabular, or textual means.
The relationship between architecture data elements across the SV to the OV can be exemplified as systems are procured and fielded to support organizations and their operations.
The actual sequence of view generation and their potential customization is a function of the application domain and the specific needs of the effort.
But to build an architecture description that corresponds to ANSI/IEEE 1471-2000 or ISO/IEC 42010, it is necessary to clearly identify the stakeholders and their concerns that map to each selected DoDAF product.
DoDAF generically describes in the representation of the artifacts to be generated, but allows considerable flexibility regarding the specific formats and modeling techniques.
DoDAF versions 1.0 thru 1.5 used the CADM meta-model, which was defined in IDEF1X (then later in UML) with an XML Schema derived from the resulting relational database.
In this manner, the DM2 supports the exchange and reuse of architectural information among JCAs, Components, and Federal and Coalition partners, thus facilitating the understanding and implementation of interoperability of processes and systems.
[6] The UPDM (Unified Profile for DoDAF and MODAF) is an OMG initiative to standardize UML and SysML usage for USA and UK defense architecture frameworks.
In addition, the multi-national IDEAS Group, which is supported by Australia, Canada, Sweden, UK, USA, with NATO observers, has launched an initiative to develop a formal ontology for enterprise architectures.
