The Failures and Promises of an Operational Service-Oriented Architecture: The ROI of Operational Effectiveness in Addition to Acquisition Efficiency at the Navy's Op Level of War

Abstract

This paper and presentation will share four years of research by the Naval War College into the operational requirements for a service-oriented architecture (SOA) for the Navy's operational level of war applied at the Navy's Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs). It will also argue that the cost-benefit analysis for SOA must be the improved operational effectiveness of the organization, not just the lower costs of data management and reduced redundancies of legacy systems. It will share a model for such an evaluation, and a model for proper protocols and data management for implementation. This paper argues that the proper cost-benefit analysis of service-oriented architecture is not possible without an operational integrated architecture that explicitly captures the role-based decision making protocols mapped to the core operational and enterprise-wide processes necessary to improve operational effectiveness. This paper and presentation will share this research and its direct application to the design and implementation of SOA for the Navy's Operational Level of War.