The defense departments of the United States and Great Britain have long been aligned militarily. Now they’re cozying up technologically too. The two organizations this week announced the UPDM Group, a trans-Atlantic effort to create a unified version of what are now two distinct application object models.
The group, which is comprised of about a dozen ISVs and defense contractors including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, is being headed by Artisan Software Tools and No Magic. According to its mission statement published in a news release Monday, “The UPDM Group is committed to creating a unified profile for MODAF and DoDAF, leveraging the capabilities of UML, SysML and other OMG standards.”
The specifications in question are the U.S. Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF1.5) and the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense Architecture Framework (MODAF1.2). Both are based on specifications published by the Object Management Group—keeper of UML and other standards—and will continue to be so.
Use of the specifications is required by government developers and software contractors. They define a consistent way to organize and view enterprise applications and systems, and are required for all major weapons, navigation and guidance systems, and complex IT architectures. A request for proposal will follow for upcoming versions of DoDAF and MODAF, both of which are “soon to be released,” according to the group.
The effort will resume the work of its predecessor group, the UML Profile for DoDAF and MODAF Finalization Task Force, which failed to meet the needs of the defense community and was not endorsed at OMG’s Washington meeting in March.
The UPDM Group lists its Web site as www.updm.org, but when I filed this story, the address was not active.