ManTech CALS/IDE Program Archive Documents
Summary of CALS/IDE Delivered Documents
The work performed under this contract to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support (CALS) office may be divided into the following four (4) key areas:
Integrated Data Environment (IDE)
This very important concept of the CALS initiative is linked to other highly visible concurrent Government initiatives such as the National Information Infrastructure (NII), the Defense Information Infrastructure (DII), and the Government Information Infrastructure (GII). Under this project, we will build on our initial Integrated Weapon System Data Base (IWSDB) Implementation Strategy Paper (Version II), Data Management Tools Tasking, and the IWSDB Business Case Modeling to formulate a sound foundation and strategy for an IDE. Our team will be highly visible and will coordinate all of our work with all appropriate Government Agencies and Industry.
Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs)
This resource critical information area of the CALS initiative provides technical information to weapons system operations and maintenance personnel. The relevant technologies deal with the authoring, migration, delivery, and maintenance of technical information for both new weapon systems and legacy weapon systems. A critical issue is how best to migrate the voluminous paper from technical manuals on current weapon systems to interactive, electronic technical manuals that reduce the labor intensity for the authoring, maintenance, and delivery of technical information. Another critical issue is compliance with IETM specifications, and the validation and testing of IETM development and maintenance tools. A critical need in the delivery of technical information is the capability to exchange IETM view packages across dissimilar electronic display platforms. The Metafile for Interactive Documents (MID) is an approach to providing this exchange capability. Three of the current Statement of Work (SOW) tasks fall under this heading: IETM Validation and Testing, the MID Demonstration, and Electronic Technical Manual (ETM)/IETM Conversion Support. Our approach to this tasking will build on our initial OSD CALS IWSDB Task 5 assessment and findings of the ETM Environment. Under that task, we performed the following related subtasks:
a. Defining ETM (multiple types).
b. Review and Coordination of IETM Specification Requirements and Evaluation.
c. Coordination with Joint CALS (JCALS).
d. Conversion of Technical Manuals.
e. Testing Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Software and IETMs for Compliance.
Internet Implementation
The Internet is a world wide network of cooperative computer systems that provide information services, electronic mail, and electronic data exchange of information resources including but not limited to logistical data, reusable software, standards, specifications, acquisition data, and electronic commerce. Two of the IDE tasking areas fall under this heading: (1) the International Collaboration and Information Network (ICN) and (2) the MID Demonstration. Our approach to these tasks will build on the work and findings of the OSD CALS IWSDB Task 9B: Electronic Commerce/Electronic Data Interchange (EC/EDI); Task 1: CALS Test and Validation Tools and an Implementation Plan for a CALS Tools Reuse Repository. The ICN approach will build on the findings of Internet capabilities to support Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Commerce (EC). The Task 9B findings of emerging Internet implementations of security capabilities such as Riordan's Internet Privacy Enhanced Mail (RIPEM), Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM), and other public key encryption implementations are particularly significant for the implementation of security for the ICN. The MID Demonstration will build on the validation testing assessment methodology performed on OSD CALS IWSDB CALS testing tools assessment.
Business Case Modeling
This area is a continuation of the Business Case Modeling prototype developed during the OSD CALS IWSDB Project (Task 7: Business Case Development). Our approach to this task will refine and validate the business case templates developed during the earlier work. This refinement will decompose the activity node trees down to the next level for a weapon system acquisition process. The validation process will use two current Weapon System Projects (F 22, and AEGIS) to validate the activity node templates and the preliminary metrics for building a business case. The metrics are a critical component in building a business case so that comparisons against the same units of measure may be performed. The business case modeling area involves three tasks within the IDE Project SOW (Task 4: Business Case Methodology; Task 7: Defense/International CALS Network; and Task 8: IETM Conversion).
The documents are given below as per the titles of the tasks.
TASK 1: IETM Conformance/Validation Support
TASK 2: IETM Specifications Migration
TASK 3: DSSSL Assessment
TASK 4: Business Case Methodology
TASK 5: Internet MID Demonstration
TASK 6: Integrated Data Environment
TASK 7: Defense/International CALS Network
TASK 8: IETM Conversion Services