1. Operationalizing C2 Agility IAMWG December 13 th 2006 Dr. Jimmie McEver Ms. Danielle Martin Evidence Based Research, Inc.

2. 2 Refining and Operationalizing C2 Agility CCRP has defined agility and articulated 6 constituent attributes: Robustness, Resilience, Responsiveness, Adaptiveness, Innovativeness, and Flexibility –Other definitions have emerged from other communities This study is aimed at building a unifying approach to understanding, measuring, and experimenting with agility and enabling factors with the C2 research community Operationalizing agility is an essential first step toward –Building a conceptual model of C2 agility –Facilitating community convergence on a definition and metrics –Ensuring effective experimentation and testing of C2 agility concepts and enablers

3. 3 Effective Operational Definitions Ackoff and Sasieni (1968)* discussed the operationalization of the definition of a goal or objective –Goals are operationally defined when the degree of their attainment can be measured –Operational statements of objectives and goals provide instructions for quantitative self-evaluation A successful definition will be: –Valid: well-grounded or justifiable; appropriate to the end in view –Reliable: yielding the same result on repeated trials –Credible: offering reasonable grounds for being believed by knowledgeable audiences * Ackoff, Russell L. and Maurice W. Sasieni. Fundamentals of Operations Research. New York, London, Sidney: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1968, p. 430.

4. 4 Creating Effective Definitions Ackoff and Sasieni describe the steps to be taken to increase the effectiveness of definitions: –Examine as many past and current definitions of the concept as possible, keeping their chronology in mind. –Try to identify the “core of meaning” that runs through the different definitions. –Using this “core”, formulate a tentative definition. –Determine if this definition serves the decision maker’s objectives; if not, make necessary revisions. –Have the resulting definition reviewed as widely as possible and make any justifiable revisions suggested. * Ackoff, Russell L. and Maurice W. Sasieni. Fundamentals of Operations Research. New York, London, Sidney: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1968, p. 390-391. To allow communication of ideas to broader community, definitions should be consistent with everyday use of language

5. 5 Operationalizing Definitions* To convert the definition into an operational form, it is necessary to specify explicitly the following factors: –The object or class of objects to be observed. –The conditions (environment) under which the observations should be made. –The operations, if any, that should be performed in that environment. –The instruments, if any, and the metric standards that are required to perform the specified operations. –The observation(s) that should be made. May have direct measures or indicators –When the concept can be directly measured –For those that are not observable, must be aware of the indicators * Ackoff, Russell L. and Maurice W. Sasieni. Fundamentals of Operations Research. New York, London, Sidney: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1968, p. 390-391.

6. 6 Purpose of this briefing Currently conducting review of related definitions from various communities –Attempting to converge on “core meaning” of terms Recognize that characterization of environment within which agility and associated attributes will be measured will be key Would like IAMWG feedback on: –Definitions reviews –Additional sources? –Other ideas to investigate in future work

7. 7 CCRP Perspective of C2 Agility: Definitions of Agility within CCRP Publications Organizational agility is the capacity to react more effectively in a rapidly changing operating environment. (Understanding Information Age Warfare, 2001, p197) Agility: adjusting to changes in the operational situation in a timely manner. (Understanding Information Age Warfare, 2001, p217) Agility is a key characteristic of an Information Age organization; a characteristic to be sought even at the sacrifice of seeking to perfect capabilities associated with specific missions or tasks. (Information Age Transformation, 2002, p82) Agile can be used to describe each component of an organization’s mission capability packages (MCPs), and/or an organization that can instantiate many MCPs. (Power to the Edge, 2003, p123) Agility: an ability of the forces to adapt, to learn and to change to meet the threats that they face. (The Agile Organization, 2005, p164) Agility presumes effective actions and implies a degree of self synchronization. (Understanding Command and Control, 2006, p201)

8. 8 CCRP: Key Attributes of C2 Agility (as defined in NCO CF v2 and PTTE) Robustness Effectiveness across different contexts (the ability to maintain effectiveness across a range of tasks, situations, and conditions The ability to maintain effectiveness across a range of tasks, situations, and conditions Adaptation The ability to change work processes and the ability to change the organization in order to take advantage of characteristics of a situation. The ability to change work processes and the ability to change the organization. Resilience Overcoming losses, damage, or setbacks (the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune/ damage, and the ability to degrade gracefully under attack or as a result of partial failure). The ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune, damage, or a destabilizing perturbation in the environment Agility always assumes effectiveness AttributeNCO CF v2Power to the Edge Responsiveness The ability to react to a change in the environment in a timely manner. Flexibility Identifying multiple ways to succeed and moving seamlessly between them. The ability to employ multiple ways to succeed and the capacity to move seamlessly between them. Innovation The ability to do new things and the ability to do old things in new ways.

9. 9 The C2 Approach Space Source: Alberts and Hayes, Understanding Command and Control, CCRP. 2006.

10. 10 The C2 Problem Space Source: Alberts and Hayes, Understanding Command and Control, CCRP. 2006.

11. 11 C2 Agility and Enabling Factors Agility: Significant Influences Source: Alberts and Hayes, “Understanding Command and Control”, CCRP. 2006.

12. 12 Common-language* definitions for agility and its components Agility –Marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace –Having a quick, resourceful, and adaptable character Robustness –Capability of performing without failure under a wide range of conditions Resilience –An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change Responsiveness –Quickness to react appropriately or sympathetically Flexibility –A ready capability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements Innovation –The introduction of something new –Innovative: characterized by, tending to, or introducing innovations Adaptation –Adjustment to environmental conditions * Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online)

13. 13 UK (QinetiQ): Selected Perspectives on C2 Agility Three types of agility –Operational agility reflects the achievement of end states by an organization (measured in terms of relative optempo) –Organizational agility reflects the means that an organization has to achieve operational agility (in particular the capacity and structural flexibility of the means) –Command agility reflects the affordance in ways of using the organizational agility, reflects the willingness and ability to use the available means to achieve desired ends Relevant problem space can be characterized using a three dimensional space (as in UC2) –Familiarity of the problem (low to high) –Rates of change inherent in the problem (low to high) –Strength of information position (low to high) Dodd, Richardson, Alston, Beautement, Investigation into the C2 arrangements for Edge Organisations, QinetiQ, 2006)

14. 14 UK (QinetiQ): Selected Perspectives (con’t) Key attributes of agility –[Having the] ability to adapt to or shape change –To be innovative, flexible and responsive (and grasp fleeting opportunities) –To be robust and resilient (in the face of potentially catastrophic disruption) Agility can only be manifested at run-time Mobility (from the game Othello) –The number of moves player A has available, compared with the number that B has available Plastic: –Able to combine and employ elements on-the-fly in novel ways Unconstrained: –Able to adapt continuously to changing circumstances, including being able to cope with sudden opportunities, changes, dislocations or disruptions From “Agile and Adaptive Operations – Leveraging the Power of Complex Environments”, 2006 ICCRTS Proceedings, Beautement

15. 15 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility Agility allows forces to cope with the unexpected. –DSTO, Fern Hill, Department of Defence, Canberra ACT 2006, Australia Agility is complementary to capability strength and capability depth in contributing to mission effectiveness. Types of agility: tactical/operational, organisational, deployment, sustainment, acquisition, and conceptual. –Dekker, “Measuring the Agility of Networked Military Forces,” Journal of Battlefield Technology Vol 9, No 1, March 2006 Agility refers to the ability of an organisation, person, or military force to perceive an upcoming threat, and to respond quickly enough to it. –Dekker, “Agility in Networked Military Systems: A Simulation Experiment”, 11 th ICCRTS, Paper I-031, p. 3, Sept. 2006

16. 16 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: Summary of Factors Affecting Agility Source: Dekker, “Agility in Networked Military Systems: A Simulation Experiment”, 11th ICCRTS, Paper I-031, p. 3, Sept. 2006.

17. 17 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: Adaptation as the overarching concept (DSTO) DSTO’s Land Warfare Division has been exploring adaptation/adaptivity and applications of complex adaptive systems ideas to understanding and facilitating agility –TTCP has recently formed an Action Group to study Complex Adaptive Systems for Defence (Dr. Grisogono, DSTO, leading) Hallmarks of Adaptivity* –‘Intelligent’ context-appropriate behaviour – discovery and exploitation of advantages available in context –Resilience to shocks, fast damage recovery –Robust to perturbations – core functions –Flexible responses – a range of different strategies for any given end –Agility – rapid change of tack to more effective behaviours –Innovation – leading to creation of new strategies and new structures –System learns from experience – information about past context is encoded into the system. System success tends to increase as a result. –Different from reactive behaviour –Presupposes a concept of ‘better’ or ‘success’ * Source: Grisogono, Anne-Marie, What is adaptation?, TTCP Symposium, CAS for Defense, 2006.

18. 18 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: DSTO terminology from TTCP Symposium DSTO usage of terms: –system as a very general concept to include not just technical systems, but also living organisms, interdependent groups of them, socio-technical systems, … –adaptation as the overriding general concept, –robustness as a general property of stability of function against various kinds of stress –and have defined specific concepts which we have labeled Agility, Resilience, Flexibility and Responsiveness –evolution to mean incremental adaptation in populations –and learning to mean incremental change in individual systems –Related terms: adaptivity, adapted, adaptability Labels can be changed – community needs to develop a language – but what is important is the concepts that are being distinguished. Source: Grisogono, Anne-Marie, What is adaptation?, TTCP Symposium, CAS for Defense, 2006.

19. 19 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: DSTO Classes of Adaptivity Need to identify a classification of adaptive mechanisms based on the types of changes to be dealt with: –Whether internal or external –The time scale –The effects scale Provides a way of articulating what we aspire to achieve in dealing with these changes Four classes: –Responsiveness –Resilience –Agility –Flexibility Source: Clark, Thea, Classes and Levels of Adaptivity, TTCP Symposium, CAS for Defense, 2006.

20. 20 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: Four Classes of Adaptivity Class Change to be dealt with Response needed Timescale Effect scale Int / Ext Timescale Effect scale Flexibility Slow Time for new reqt to emerge Slow time for new reqt to emerge Major, wide- ranging External To match Major Major Robustness of force to the unknown future Agility Inter- mediate Major and/or wide External and/or internal Rapid Signifi- cantly different strategy Robustness of force to changing conditions during ops Im- mediate Respon- siveness Fast FastLocal LocalExternal ExternalLocal Local Robustness of force to the unexpected during ops Resilience Fast From local up to major InternalTimelyAll scales Robustness of force to damage, & shocks during ops Source: Clark, Thea, Classes and Levels of Adaptivity, TTCP Symposium, CAS for Defense, 2006.

21. 21 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: Generic Model of Adaptivity System context System and context interact System ‘senses’ through outcome of interaction System changes (random or triggered by outcome) System processing of changed outcome might reinforce, inhibit or not affect system change Key features: VariationVariation of system, FeedbackinteractionFeedback through interaction with context, and SelectionSelection of adaptive change by fitness-linked retainment / inhibition. This is a fixed context, with system fitness improving over time If selection is linked to fitness system adapts  Some contextual factors affect some internal system feedback strengths. System and context interact outcome of interaction might be different as result of system change feedback variation selectioninteraction

22. 22 Agility-related terms exist in other domains Robustness (complexity science, engineering, biology) [1]: –Maintenance of some desired system characteristics despite fluctuations in the behavior of its component parts or its environment Tolerance (engineering) [2]: –The allowable deviation from a standard; especially : the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece Fault tolerance (software design) [2]: –Relating to or being a computer or program with a self-contained backup system that allows continued operation when major components fail Reliability: (engineering, general science) [2] –the extent to which an experiment, test, or measuring procedure yields the same results on repeated trials Evolvability (biology) [3]: –The ability of random variations to sometimes produce improvement [1]Carlson and Doyle, “Complexity and Robustness,” PNAS, 2002. [2] Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online), 2006. [3]Wagner and Altenberg, “Complex Adaptations and the Evolution of Evolvability,” Evolution 50 (3): 967-976, 1996.

23. 23 Observations Agility and its constituent attributes are characterized by a capacity to respond to change effectively –Attributes deal with particular classes of stimuli and responses We are interested in intentional, deliberate agility, rather than evolution/adaptation from random variation (as in nature) –But physical and biological systems may provide useful frameworks and descriptors (e.g. concept of fitness) CCRP treats agility as an overarching term to describe the ability to succeed in the face of change –Adaptivity, robustness also used in other communities Understanding what agility is and how to recognize and measure it is different from understanding the factors that enable agility –The latter is what much of the literature involves –Crisp, unambiguous definitions sparse Need to get at the essence of what agility is, rather than its value and how it is achieved, to understand how to recognize and measure it

24. 24 Operationalizing C2 Agility Need metrics relating to aspect of organizational capability addressed Need quantitative treatment of “C2 problem space” within which to measure agility –Agility and its factors address the ability of an organization to succeed in multiple parts of the problem space Different missions, scenarios Changing missions, scenarios –Measurement of agility will require intelligent sampling of problem space Sampling methodology an important research question –Measurement of agility attributes may require “slicing” the problem space in ways related to aspect of agility addressed OFT representatives argue that learning is an essential aspect of agility (Source: Terry Pudas) –Possible heuristic for some attributes of agility? –Or a factor determining the agility potential of an organization?

25. 25 Back up material

26. 26 C2 Agility The Six Aspects of C2 Agility in the Domains of Warfare (Power to the Edge)

27. 27 Australian Perspectives on C2 Agility: DSTO Classes of Adaptivity ClassDescriptionStimulusResponse Respon- siveness Ability to react to a change in the environment in a timely manner ‘Intelligent’ context-appropriate behaviour: i.e. recognise and take advantage of opportunities, recognise and avoid dangers The capacity to recognise and deal with a new threat or opportunity in a timely way, as effectively as if there were ample time to plan and prepare for it. Immediate external changes Immediate response ResilienceAbility to recover from or adjust to misfortune or damage and to degrade gracefully under attack or as a result of partial failure. Core functionality unaffected; quick recovery from damage with minimal interruption/ loss of capability Local internal changes Timely response AgilityAbility to recognise when to shift from one strategy to another Rapid change of tack during execution to more effective behaviours Significant external or internal changes Significant and different response FlexibilityAbility to create and maintain effectiveness across a range of tasks, situations, and conditions Structure and capability of the system can be reconfigured in different ways to do different things, under different sets of conditions Major and wide- ranging external changes Major responses Source: Clark, Thea, Classes and Levels of Adaptivity, TTCP Symposium, CAS for Defense, 2006.