Evaluation of interoperability requirements for the armed forces 2014 - Method for visual data analysis
Publish date: 2012-03-26
Report number: FOI-R--3414--SE
Pages: 76
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- NATO Requirements
- IO14
- Armed Forces 2014
- OLAP
- Visual Analytics
- visualization
- Visual OLAP
- Business Intelligence
- QlikView
- interoperability
- Model
- based capability development
- capability based planning
- evaluation
- Military Unit
- Requirement Specifications
Abstract
For the purpose of appending interoperability requirements to the Military Unit Requirement Specifications for the Armed Forces 2014 the Joint Strategy and Operations Staff, J0 Operational Requirements Division have performed a datacollection effort among representatives of the military units regarding their estimation of their units' fulfilment of so called NATO requirements (primarily Capability Codes & Statements, Nato Tasks, ACO Forces Standards). The resulting data were stored in structured form in a database, making them amenable for analysis. The practical investigation of a method for such analysis was identified by the Supreme Commander's Staff, Policy and Development Department as a study to be undertaken by FOI as a part of its research within the field of Model-based Capability Development. Applying techniques and tools from the fields of Business Intelligence and Visual Analytics to the context at hand, we have developed and tested a method we are calling "Visual OLAP". The experiences from these efforts show promise for the method as a way of exploring large datasets of structured evaluative data to inform decision processes within capability development, especially when the decision makers, aided by methodological expertise, are closely involved in the analytical process. A caveat, though, is that, since the method for analysis is partly based on aggregation of data that disregards specific evaluation contexts, the analyses should be interpreted with prudence and primarily seen as a way of uncovering potential capability issues for further investigation.