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Hundreds of volumes of information systems architectures sit on shelves in offices of the Defense Department and other parts of the government. That does not mean that those products are useless or haven't served a particular organization's purpose. It does mean that, until now, there has been no expedient way to interrelate or integrate the information contained within them because of the apples-and-oranges syndrome; that is, each architect has used unique templates, terms, and definitions. Architectures also tend to collect dust because they are too broad in scope and often lack the level of detail required for solving specific problems or for effective reuse. Architecture efforts tend to suffer mission-creep: by trying to serve myriad purposes, they degenerate into attempts to document everything, undertakings for which there are never enough resources available.

MITRE is providing guidance to the Defense Department in architecture development, interoperability determination and assessment, and architecture integration and analysis. Working with several Defense Department organizations, MITRE has produced an architecture "Framework" document, which describes a method for consistently developing community architectures so that they can later be integrated.

MITRE has also developed LISI (Levels of Information Systems Interoperability), a reference model and process for assessing information systems' capabilities and implementation in context with the degree of interoperability required. These initiatives are rapidly taking root in the government as a way to integrate and assess information systems architectures.

What's the Use?
The Framework describes three "views" of an architecture (operational, systems, and technical) and how they work together (Figure 1). That allows an audit trail to be drawn from integrated mission operational requirements and measures of effectiveness to the supporting systems and their characteristics, and to the specific technical criteria for implementing the supporting systems. The audit trail is particularly important in that it follows new government legislation (the Information Technology Management Reform Act), which requires systems to be justified in terms of common measures of performance.

Figure 1: The three views of an architecture

During the past two years, MITRE has helped many Defense Department organizations to apply the Framework to their architecture development and analysis. MITRE has also conducted selected architecture integration analyses focused on identifying cross-community opportunities for leveraging systems, for eliminating unnecessary functional duplication in existing systems, and for identifying joint systems interoperability issues and solutions. Lessons learned from prototype applications are now reflected in a new version of the Framework, which is about to be standardized.

This new Framework makes sure that architecture descriptions can be integrated across joint and multi-national organizational boundaries.

Incorporating LISI into the Architecture Process
The Defense Department's goal is to learn to fight as one virtual team; interoperability is crucial to achieve this goal. LISI is a discipline and a process for defining, assessing, and certifying the degree of interoperability required or achieved between organizations or systems.

Figure 2: The LISI Reference Model

Effective use of LISI establishes threads that link the architecture views together.

Using LISI, the operational view of an architecture identifies the specific level of interoperability required from node to node. The systems view responds by identifying and assessing current or postulated systems and their suites of capabilities against the LISI reference. The technical view defines the specific system profiles of criteria that govern the interoperability of each required capability. LISI describes each level's requisite capabilities and characteristics in terms of four attributes: Procedures, Applications, Infrastructure, and Data (PAID) (seen in Figure 2). In the past, interoperability has not been treated in this broad view, which goes beyond simple connection between systems.

The LISI Reference Model
LISI has already demonstrated its usefulness to many Defense Department organizations. For example, testers at the Joint Battle Center are experimenting with LISI as a basis for assessing heterogeneous systems. DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) and the Joint Staff see LISI as a way to make sure that interoperability is included in requirements documentation, and some federal Chief Information Officers see LISI as providing effective measures of performance for interoperability.

Using Architectures to Determine Technology's Impact on Missions
MITRE is helping CISA (C4I Integration Support Activity) to achieve an effective, efficient, seamless C4ISR Architecture for the Warfighter (CAW). Developing that architecture will add improved strategic planning, efficient acquisition management, and focused investment strategy development. CAW will also provide the basis for the Combatant Commands to identify and obtain effective, integrated, and interoperable go-to-war capabilities.

MITRE's main focus is on prescriptive architecture analysis, or a Technology Roadmap, which identifies advanced technologies that could be used to address mission shortfalls by replacing or supplementing the new capabilities that are currently programmed. The Framework and LISI are both crucial contributors to developing that Technology Roadmap.

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For more information, please contact Jennifer Chatfield using the employee directory.

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