A Reference Architecture for a Policy Test Laboratory

Abstract

The government has identified several obstacles to inform effective and efficient acquisition policies. Effective modeling, simulation, and analysis of acquisition policies require a multi-domain, multi-scale approach. However, existing research in acquisition policy analysis has primarily remained siloed. Policy researchers lack a platform that enables sharing, reusing, or integrating the methods, models, and data developed and/or generated by different research teams in different projects. Government envisions a Policy Test Laboratory (PTL) as a potential solution to this need. The PTL is conceived as a service where a domain model developed in a project can be used and/or integrated with another model of a different domain developed in a different project. This paper presents a reference architecture for the PTL, defined as a set of guidelines and constraints that will enable (1) the sharing and use across acquisition research projects of data, models, and tools, and (2) the construction and composition of multi-disciplinary models of government acquisition, that addresses both technical and governing aspects.