Data management in support of an integrated information policy: an Army perspective

The Army (in the UK) has a long term goal of providing a federation of interoperable systems so as to give the users the impression of "a single and fully integrated Army CIS for use in peace and war, on and off the battlefield, by the year 2010". Effective data management is seen as essential if interoperability is to be achieved. We identified that the way to achieve effective data management was to build a single logical data model for the whole of the Army, with the model being built by projects collaborating with the data management organisation to expand a central core. This central core is based on the requirements of the staff of an operational headquarters. The major problem to be overcome in a collaborative exercise of this kind is the data modeller's natural inclination to demonstrate his artistry by producing his model without benefit of previous work. This implies that it is necessary to effect a change in the prevailing culture within the data modelling community. Those of us involved in data management in the Army believe that this culture change can be achieved. The wider exposure of our model to an ever growing number of analysts, each coming from a different viewpoint, can only serve to enrich our model and at the same time, increase the understanding of our purpose so as to reduce the problems to be overcome.