The Dynamic Synchronization Matrix: An Automated Decision Support Tool for the Campaign Planning Staff

Abstract

Synchronization is "the ability to focus resources and activities in time and space to produce maximum relative combat power at the decisive point." This is a tenet of US Army doctrine. This monograph reviews the concept of synchronization at the operational level, and provides campaign staffs with a decision support tool in order to improve operational level planning and execution for the employment of joint US military forces. Operational synchronization is more complex than simply massing "operational level" combat power at the "operationally" decisive point. Commanders and their staffs must be capable of conceptualizing, or "visualizing" across multiple forces and functions, and both their actions and effects through space over extended periods of time. This paper proposes an automated technique (labeled the "Dynamic Synchronization Matrix") for synchronizing forces at the operational level. The Dynamic Synchronization Matrix is a simple adaptation of a commercial project management program, run on a personal computer, which improves upon existing capabilities because it combines the two distinct major improvements of PERT methodology and automation. This decision support tool improves upon the two dimensional synchronization matrices that enable modern tactical planning, command and control by making connections between time, space, forces, functions, actions, and effects which the average human would have difficulty making and storing. The net gains in employing the DSM include more disciplined planning, greater flexibility in subsequent planning and execution, multiple display options, greater speed, agility, and accuracy, enhanced situational awareness and information management, insights into one's own plans, and enemy strengths and vulnerabilities, and linkage and applicability to subordinate echelons and other levels of war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 17, 1994
Accession Number
ADA289230

Entities

People

  • Kevin S. Donohue

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Cognitive Workload
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Employment
  • Gantt Charts
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Applications
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Project Management
  • Two Dimensional
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Space