Department of Defense (DoD) Architecture Framework (DoDAF)

Joe Schartman

The Department of Defense (DoD) Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is a specification mandated for new DoD acquisitions and is resource-intensive. This specification is a model driven framework which defines systems views (SVs), operational views (OVs), and technical views (TVs). DoDAF is base on UML and it can be tailored to work very with the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) process.

As defined in the DoDAF (2006) an OV is “a description of the tasks and activities, operational elements, and information exchange required to accomplish DoD missions.” An SV is “a set of graphical and textual products that describes systems and interconnections providing for, or supporting, DoD functions. The SV associates systems resources to OV.”

Many of today’s systems are highly integrated which greatly increases the overall complexity. These sytems-of-systems (SOS) require compatible hardware, software and network protocols. SOS architectures require technical design specification frameworks and DoDAF was designed with to satisfy this goal.

Simplistically, the OVs and SVs establish what systems must connect, and the SVs and technical standards view establish how systems must connect. From an engineering perspective, OVs are representations of requirements. The SVs describe how those requirements are implemented. DoDAF-compliant architectures constructed with this symmetry in mind have traceability between systems and requirements. (Hamilton, 2006)

DoDAF, like any architectural framework, requires a description language for implementing the architecture diagrams. UML is the most common description language used for DoDAF applications. Understanding both the DoDAF work products views and the various UML diagrams requires training and experience. Enterprise Architect is an excellent tool offered by Telelogic which has the capability to create DoDAF work products views which are extensions of UML diagrams. A few of the DoDAF view to UML product mappings are listed in the table below (Kobryn and Sibbald, 2004).

DoDAF View	Work Product Name	UML Diagram
OV-1	Operational Concept	Class/Use Case Diagram
OV-2	Operational Node Connectivity	Composite Structure Diagram
OV-4	Organizational Chart	Class Diagram
OV-5	Operational Activity Model	Activity Diagram with Object Flows
OV-6b	Operational State Transition	State Machine Diagram
OV-6c	Operational Event Trace	Sequence Diagram
OV-7	Logical Data Model	Class Diagram
SV-1	System Interface Description	Composite Structure Diagram
SV-2	System Communications Description	Composite Structure Diagram
SV-4	System Functional Description	Activity Diagram with Object Flows
SV-10b	System State Transition	State Machine Diagram
SV-10c	System Event Trace	Sequence Diagram
SV-11	Physical Schema	Class Diagram

Hamilton, J (2006). DoDAF-Based Information Assurance Architectures. Retrieved Feb 13, 2006 from: http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2006/02/0602Hamilton.html

DoDAF (2006). DoD Archi-tecture Framework Vers. 1.0 Vol. I: Definitions and Guidelines. Retrieved Feb 13, 2006 from: www.defenselink.mil/nii/doc

Kobryn, C and Sibbald, C (2004). Modeling DoDAF Compliant. Architectures. Retrieved Feb 16, 2006 from:

www.uml-forum.com/docs/papers/White_Paper_Modeling_DoDAF_UML2.pdf