Service Oriented Architectures Using DoDAF1

This paper describes how the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) can be used for describing a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). With acceptance of NetworkCentric Warfare (NCW) and “net-centricity”, the Department of Defense (DoD) is moving towards operational and systems designs based on dynamic producer/consumer models consistent with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural approach to application integration that enables flexible connectivity of applications or resources implemented as services. Such services have well-defined, platformindependent interfaces that hide the underlying technical complexity of the environment (encapsulation), are self-contained (loosely coupled), and reusable. DoDAF does not prescribe any particular methodology or process (SOA or otherwise) for creating the actual architecture model, but only the elements and relationships that any given methodology would use. Tailoring of the DoDAF elements and relationships, which DoDAF allows, is necessary to meet the SOA paradigm shift. Further, creating DoDAF architecture descriptions that are service orientated supports globalization and the integration of geographically dispersed organizations (Net-centricity).