There is no "A" in CD&E, Neither for Analysis nor for Anarchy - Ensuring Scientific Rigour and Analytical Structure while maintaining Military Relevance and Artistic Freedom
Abstract
As a consequence of the ending of the Cold War, the defence forces of many countries in the world are going through radical transformation and reformation. For many countries, Concept Development and Experimentation (CD&E) has become the main vehicle for developing and testing new ideas during this transformation. The Swedish Armed Forces (AF) has also adopted CD&E as its main instrument in its endeavour to reform its forces. In order to ensure that the methodology was properly known throughout the Swedish AF in general, and among the officers directly involved in CD&E in particular, it was decided by the Swedish AF Head Quarters (HQ) that a CD&E Handbook should be produced. The author of this paper was one of the members of a small working group that was assigned the task of producing such a handbook. In the extensive literature study that was the initial step in this work, it was established that most of that which had hitherto been written about CD&E was either describing different classifications and categorisations of different types of concepts that could be developed, or was focusing on the different types of experiments which should ensue to test the concepts that were being developed. In comparison, relatively little was written about other analytical methods that could be used in order to ensure that, at all times, the right concept was being developed and that it was being developed in the right way , i.e. to make sure that the maturing concept was tested throughout its development in order to assure quality, ensure transparency and in order to provide an audit trail. The purpose of this paper is to present a case for why a structured analytical support is needed in order to ensure that, at all times, the right concept is being developed and that it is being developed in the right way , i.e. to promote an analytical approach to avoid anarchy in CD&E by the introduction of analytical support as quality assurance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA584339
Entities
People
- Thomas Ekstroem
Organizations
- Swedish Defence Research Agency