Decision Support Framework: Architecture development

From its inception over fifty years ago, The Aerospace Corporation has been supporting government decision making with objective technical analysis performed by subject matter experts using many tools, models, and evaluation processes. Strong customer demand for timely analysis and advances in modeling capabilities have motivated the integration of fast, concurrent, engineering processes into what is now defined as the Decision Support Framework (DSF). The open-model DSF employs a layered approach to capability evaluation that encompasses technical, programmatic, mission, enterprise, and national levels. This paper describes DSF with focus on the architecting module. Sample architecture products from a recent Overhead Persistent Infra Red (OPIR) development planning study are given to illustrate current DSF architecting processes.