MITRE is urging the Department of Defense to adopt new architectural principles that enable interoperability, adaptability and future-proofing in response to evolving battlefield needs. The not-for-profit organization on Tuesday published a strategy to guide the Pentagon’s approach to acquiring and implementing new capabilities.
Modern Capabilities Require Interoperability
MITRE, in the strategy, highlighted the modular open systems approach, or MOSA, as a way to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies. MOSA decomposes systems into their critical functions with standardized interfaces and are capable of working together.
However, according to the organization, some challenges prevent the government from fully realizing the potential of MOSA. Restrictive enforcement of data standards, overly prescriptive definitions of system components and verifying interoperability across various systems can prevent the public sector from reaping the benefits of open systems.
Shifting Away From a Traditional Mindset
To address challenges associated with adopting MOSA, MITRE recommends new architectural principles that include breaking data silos, establishing modular boundaries, setting measures of effectiveness, and balancing intellectual property rights and sourcing to gain the best capabilities.
The strategy also suggests that decision-makers also consider switching costs, which refers to the impact of moving from one solution to another, and opportunity costs that come from developing overly conservative architectures, in addition to traditional metrics of cost, single-pass schedule and performance.
