Data Centric Integration and Analysis of Information Technology Architectures

The premise of this thesis is that integrated architectures have increased usefulness to the users of the systems they describe when they can be interactively and dynamically updated and used in conjunction with systems engineering analyses to enable systems optimization. In order to explore this premise, three research topics are presented. The first topic discusses needs and uses for integrated architectures indicated throughout Department of Defense (DoD) policies, directives, instructions, and guides. The second topic presents a systems engineering analysis process and discusses the relevancy of integrated architectures to these analyses. Building on the previous two topics, the third discusses federation, governance, and net-centric concepts that can be used to significantly improve DoD Enterprise Architecture development, integration, and analysis; with specific recommendations for the Army Architecture Integration Process. A key recommendation is the implementation of a collaborative environment for net-centric architecture integration and analysis to provide a rich and agile data foundation for systems engineering and System of Systems engineering analyses, which are required to optimize the DoD Enterprise Architecture as a whole. Other conclusions, recommendations, and areas for future work are also presented.