Information-Centric Decision-Support Systems: A Blueprint for ‘Interoperability’
Jens G. Pohl · 2001
For the past 20 years the US military services have suffered under the limitations of stove-piped computer software applications that function as discrete entities within a fragmented dataprocessing environment. Lack of interoperability has been identified by numerous think tanks, advisory boards, and studies, as the primary information systems problem (e.g., Army Science Board 2000, Air Force SAB 2000 Command and Control Study, and NSB Network-Centric Naval Forces 2000). Yet, despite this level of attention, all attempts to achieve interoperability within the current data-centric information systems environment have proven to be expensive, unreliable, and generally unsuccessful. The Apparently Elusive Goal of Interoperability The expectations of true interoperability are threefold. First, interoperable applications should be able to integrate related functional sequences in a seamless and user transparent manner. Second, this level of integration assumes the sharing of information from one application to another, so that the results of the functional sequence are automatically available and similarly interpreted by the other application. And third, any of the applications should be able to enter or exit the integrated interoperable environment without jeopardizing the continued operation of the