DoDAF Viewpoints and Models
Operational Viewpoint
Introduction to OV-6a, OV-6b and OV-6c
OV Models discussed in previous sections model the static structure of the Architectural elements and their relationships. Many of the critical characteristics of an architecture are only discovered when the dynamic behavior of these elements is modeled to incorporate sequencing and timing aspects.
The dynamic behavior referred to here concerns the timing and sequencing of events that capture operational behavior of a business process or mission thread. Thus, this behavior is related to the activities of OV-5b. Behavior modeling and documentation is essential to a successful Architectural Description, because it describes how the architecture behaves and that is crucial in many situations. Knowledge of the Operational Activities and Resource Flow exchanges is important; but knowing when, for example, a response should be expected after sending message X to Activity Y at Location A can also be essential to achieving successful operations.
Several modeling techniques may be used to refine and extend the Architectural Description's OV to adequately describe the dynamic behavior and timing performance characteristics of an architecture. The OV-6 DoDAF-described Models includes three such models. They are:
OV-6 DoDAF-described Models portray some of the same architectural data elements, but each also portrays some unique architectural data elements. OV-6b and OV-6c may be used separately or together, as necessary, to describe critical timing and sequencing behavior in the OV. Both types of models are used by a wide variety of business process methodologies as well as Object-Oriented methodologies. OV-6b and OV-6c describe Operational Activity or business process responses to sequences of events. Events may also be referred to as inputs, transactions, or triggers. Events can be internally or externally generated and can include such things as the receipt of a message, a timer going off, or conditional tests being satisfied. When an event occurs, the action to be taken may be subject to a rule or set of rules (conditions) as described in OV-6a.
OV-1: High-Level Operational Concept Graphic
OV-2: Operational Resource Flow Description
OV-3: Operational Resource Flow Matrix
OV-4: Organizational Relationships Chart
OV-5a: Operational Activity Decomposition Tree
OV-5b: Operational Activity Model
OV-6a, 6b, 6c: Introduction
OV-6a: Operational Rules Model
OV-6b: State Transition Description
OV-6c: Event-Trace Description