Raymond R. Buettner

Case Study of a Complex Informing System: Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX)

The Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event, organized by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), is conducted 3-4 times a year at various locations. The four day event can be characterized as an informing system specifically designed to facilitate structured and unstructured communications between a variety of parties—e.g., software developers, inventors, military and civilian users of various technologies, academics, and agencies responsible for identifying and procuring technology solutions—that frequently are constrained in their informing activities in more restrictive venues. Over the course of the event, participants may observe technology demonstrations, obtain feedback from potential users, acquire new ideas about their technologies might be employed and, perhaps most significantly, engage in ad hoc collaborations with other participants. The present paper describes an exploratory case research study that was conducted over a one year period and involved both direct observation of the event and follow-up interviews with 49 past participants in the event. The goal of the research was to assess the nature of participantimpact resulting from attending JIFX and to consider the consistency of the findings with the predictions of various theoretical frameworks used in informing science. The results suggest that participants perceived that the event provided significant value from three principal sources: discovery, interaction with potential clients (users) of the technologies involved, and networking with other participants. These findings were largely consistent with what could be expected from informing under conditions of high complexity; because value generally derives from combinations of attributes rather than from the sum of individual attributes, we would expect that overall value from informing activities will be perceived even though estimates of the incremental value of that informing cannot be made.

The impact of multi-institutional semi-structured learning environments (MISSLE)

A specific instance of the multi-institutional semi-structured learning environment (MISSLE) informing system construct is introduced and described. The description places an emphasis on aspects that have proven successful in accelerating new systems to the customer and in the enhancement of systems for those participating in these collaborative learning events. Examples are provided that include unmanned/robotic systems, command and control systems, and surveillance/reconnaissance systems. A review is provided of some of the major challenges associated with developing systems of systems (SoS)and the challenges of applying traditional systems engineering (SE) approaches as identified (independently) by Blanchard and Jamshidi. Challenges that may be addressed, in whole or part, using the MISSLE construct are identified and discussed. Evidence collected from quarterly MISSLE events is offered that the informing system perspective that guides the design and execution of the MISSLE construct has successfully bridged some of these challenges and has the potential for broader application across both the government and commercial sectors for enabling more effective SoS development.