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Executive Summary: DoD Data Strategy
Unleashing Data to Advance the National Defense Strategy
BLUF: The DoD Data Strategy supports the National Defense Strategy and Digital
Modernization by providing the overarching vision , focus areas , guiding principles,
essential capabilities , and goals necessary to transform the Department into a data-centric
enterprise. Success cannot be taken for granted…it is the responsibility of all DoD leaders
to treat data as a weapon system and manage, secure, and use data for operational effect.
Vision : DoD is a data-centric organization that uses data at speed and scale for operational
advantage and increased efficiency.
Focus Areas: The strategy emphasizes the need to work closely with users in the
operational community, particularly the warfighter. Initial areas of focus include:
- Joint All Domain Operations – using data for advantage on the battlefield
- Senior Leader Decision Support – using data to improve DoD management
- Business Analytics – using data to drive informed decisions at all echelons
8 Guiding Principles that are foundational to all data efforts in the DoD:
1.) Data is a Strategic Asset – DoD data is a high-interest commodity and must be
leveraged in a way that brings both immediate and lasting military advantage.
2.) Collective Data Stewardship – DoD must assign data stewards, data custodians,
and a set of functional data managers to achieve accountability throughout the
entire data lifecycle.
3.) Data Ethics – DoD must put ethics at the forefront of all thought and actions as it
relates to how data is collected, used, and stored.
4.) Data Collection – DoD must enable electronic collection of data at the point of
creation and maintain the pedigree of that data at all times.
5.) Enterprise-Wide Data Access and Availability – DoD data must be made available
for use by all authorized individuals and non-person entities through appropriate
mechanisms.
6.) Data for Artificial Intelligence Training – Data sets for A.I. training and
algorithmic models will increasingly become the DoD’s most valuable digital
assets and we must create a framework for managing them across the data lifecycle
that provides protected visibility and responsible brokerage.
7.) Data Fit for Purpose – DoD must carefully consider any ethical concerns in data
collection, sharing, use, rapid data integration as well as minimization of any
sources of unintended bias.
8.) Design for Compliance – DoD must implement IT solutions that provide an
opportunity to fully automate the information management lifecycle, properly
secure data, and maintain end-to-end records management.
4 Essential Capabilities necessary to enable all goals:
1.) Architecture – DoD architecture, enabled by enterprise cloud and other
technologies, must allow pivoting on data more rapidly than adversaries are able to
adapt.
2.) Standards – DoD employs a family of standards that include not only commonly
recognized approaches for the management and utilization of data assets, but also
proven and successful methods for representing and sharing data.
3.) Governance – DoD data governance provides the principles, policies, processes,
frameworks, tools, metrics, and oversight required to effectively manage data at all
levels, from creation to disposition.
4.) Talent and Culture – DoD workforce (Service Members, Civilians, and
Contractors at every echelon) will be increasingly empowered to work with data,
make data-informed decisions, create evidence-based policies, and implement
effectual processes.
7 Goals (aka, VAULTIS ) we must achieve to become a data-centric DoD:
1.) Make Data V isible – Consumers can locate the needed data.
2.) Make Data A ccessible – Consumers can retrieve the data.
3.) Make Data U nderstandable – Consumers can recognize the content, context, and
applicability.
4.) Make Data L inked – Consumers can exploit data elements through innate
relationships.
5.) Make Data T rustworthy – Consumers can be confident in all aspects of data for
decision-making.
6.) Make Data I nteroperable – Consumers have a common representation/
comprehension of data.
7.) Make Data S ecure – Consumers know that data is protected from unauthorized
use/manipulation.
Way Ahead: To implement this Strategy, Components will develop measurable Data
Strategy Implementation Plans, overseen by the DoD CDO and DoD Data Council. The
data governance community and user communities will continue to partner to identify
challenges, develop solutions, and share best practices for all data stakeholders.
FOREWORD
The Department of Defense's (DoD) mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security. The DoD now recognizes that data is a strategic asset that must be operationalized in order to provide a lethal and effective Joint Force that, combined with our network of allies and partners, sustains American influence and advances shared security and prosperity.
Improving data management will enhance the Department's ability to fight and win wars in an era of great power competition, and it will enable operators and military decision-makers to harness data to capitalize on strategic and tactical opportunities that are currently unavailable. We have a responsibility to gain full value from DoD capabilities and investments, thereby earning the trust of the operational warfighter, the U.S. Congress, and the American people. Embracing new data driven concepts and leveraging commercial-sector innovations will improve military operations and increase lethality.
To enable this change, the Department is adopting new technologies as part of its Digital Modernization program - from automation to Artificial Intelligence (Al) to 5G-enabled edge devices. However, the success of these efforts depends upon fueling this digital infrastructure in a secure manner with the vast flows of data available from external sources, DoD systems, and connected sensors and platforms. Adversaries are also racing to amass data superiority, and whichever side can better leverage data will gain military advantage. Our ability to fight and win wars requires that we become world leaders in operationalizing and protecting our data resources at speed and scale.
The DoD Data Strategy supports Digital Modernization by providing the overarching vision, guiding principles, essential capabilities, goals, and objectives necessary to navigate this transition and transform into a data-centric enterprise. While opportunities to improve proficiency and efficiency are everywhere, this strategy focuses efforts on Joint Warfighting, Senior Leader Decision Support, and Business Analytics. Success cannot be taken for granted. The responsibility of all DoD leaders is to treat data as a weapon system and manage, secure, and use data for operational effect. The warfighter is counting on us to ensure that the U.S. military remains the most potent and effective fighting force in the world.
David L. Norquist Deputy Secretary of Defense
DoD Data Strategy
DoD Data Strategy ii
- Introduction T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
- 1.1. Problem Statement
- 1.2. Scope
- Vision and Guiding Principles..............................................................................................................
- 2.1. Vision Statement
- 2.2. Guiding Principles.........................................................................................................................
- 2.2.1. Data is a Strategic Asset........................................................................................................
- 2.2.2. Collective Data Stewardship
- 2.2.3. Data Ethics
- 2.2.4. Data Collection
- 2.2.5. Enterprise-Wide Data Access and Availability.....................................................................
- 2.2.6. Data for Artificial Intelligence Training
- 2.2.7. Data Fit for Purpose
- 2.2.8. Design for Compliance
- Essential Capabilities
- 3.1. Architecture...................................................................................................................................
- 3.2. Standards
- 3.3. Governance
- 3.4. Talent and Culture.........................................................................................................................
- Goals and Enabling Objectives
- 4.1. Goal: Make Data Visible..............................................................................................................
- 4.2. Goal: Make Data Accessible
- 4.3. Goal: Make Data Understandable
- 4.4. Goal: Make Data Linked
- 4.5. Goal: Make Data Trustworthy
- 4.6. Goal: Make Data Interoperable
- 4.7. Goal: Make Data Secure
- Operationalizing the Strategy
- 5.1. Strengthened Governance
- 5.2. Focus Areas.................................................................................................................................
- 5.3. Implementation Plans..................................................................................................................
- Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................
1.1. Problem Statement
DoD must accelerate its progress towards becoming a data-centric^1 organization. DoD has lacked the enterprise data management^2 to ensure that trusted, critical data is widely available to or accessible by mission commanders, warfighters, decision-makers, and mission partners in a real- time, useable, secure, and linked manner. This limits data-driven decisions and insights, which hinders the execution of swift and appropriate action.
Additionally, DoD software and hardware systems must be designed, procured, tested, upgraded, operated, and sustained with data interoperability as a key requirement. All too often these gaps are bridged with unnecessary human-machine interfaces that introduce complexity, delay, and increased risk of error. This constrains the Department’s ability to operate against threats at machine speed across all domains.
DoD also must improve skills in data fields necessary for effective data management. The Department must broaden efforts to assess our current talent, recruit new data experts, and retain our developing force while establishing policies to ensure that data talent is cultivated. We must also spend the time to increase the data acumen resident across the workforce and find optimal ways to promote a culture of data awareness.
1.2. Scope
The DoD Data Strategy applies to the entire Department of Defense and its data, on whichever systems that information resides.
2. V I S I O N A N D G U I D I N G P R I N C I P L E S
2.1. Vision Statement
DoD is a data-centric organization that uses data at speed and scale for operational advantage and increased efficiency.
(^1) Data-centric. An environment where data is the primary and permanent asset separated from systems/applications making data available to a broad range of tools and analytics within and across security domains for enrichment and discovery (derived from the IC Data Management Lexicon, January 2020). (^2) Data management. The development and execution of plans, policies, programs, and practices that acquire, control, protect, and enhance the value of data assets throughout the lifecycle (derived from the IC Data Management Lexicon, January 2020).
2.2. Guiding Principles
The Department leverages eight guiding principles to influence the goals, objectives, and essential capabilities in this strategy. These guiding principles are foundational to all data efforts within DoD.
2.2.1. Data is a Strategic Asset
DoD exerts tremendous effort planning and using traditional strategic assets such as personnel, weapon systems, supply chain, and transportation to achieve positive outcomes. In the same manner, data in the DoD is a high-interest commodity and must be leveraged in a way that brings both immediate and lasting military advantage. As DoD shifts to managing its data as a critical part of its overall mission, it gains distinct, strategic advantages over competitors and adversaries alike. These advantages will be reflected in more rapid, better-informed decisions through the use of trustworthy and integrated data.
2.2.2. Collective Data Stewardship
To exploit data fully for decision-making, DoD is defining roles and responsibilities for data stewardship. DoD will assign data stewards, data custodians, and a set of functional data managers to achieve accountability throughout the entire data lifecycle. Data stewards establish policies governing data access, use, protection, quality, and dissemination. Data custodians are responsible for promoting the value of data and enforcing policies, and functional data managers implement the policies and manage day-to-day quality.
2.2.3. Data Ethics
The ethical use of data will be at the forefront of all plans and actions for how data is collected, used, and shared. As the Secretary of Defense stated in his guidance on AI Ethics on February 21, 2020, “ Although technology changes, the Department' s commitment to the Constitution, the Law of War, and the highest standards of ethical behavior does not. ” Whether for AI or advanced analytics, ethical principles regarding the responsible use of data remain important, and they will be championed by the DoD CDO and all data and analytics leaders across the Department. Component CDOs will be responsible for promoting a culture of ethical data use supported by oversight mechanisms to identify and promote best practices among the United States and our partners.
2.2.4. Data Collection
Regardless of the data domain, community, or use, the challenge remains the same – to discover and collect data and continuously add value to best inform the decision-maker. Consequently, DoD must enable electronic collection of data at the point of creation and maintain the pedigree of that data at all times. The moment data is created, it should be tagged, stored, and cataloged. When the data is combined or integrated, the resulting product must also be immediately collected, tagged, curated, and appropriately secured. To expedite these processes and to minimize the risk of human error, these steps should be automated to the maximum extent possible.
with required data policies is a critical success factor for continued funding of future warfighting solutions and will be a gate for authorizations to operate.
3. E S S E N T I A L C A P A B I L I T I ES
Four essential capabilities are needed to accomplish the DoD data goals. These capabilities are not specific to a single goal, but they are necessary to enable achievement of all goals. Only the required capabilities are described in this section. Efforts necessary to achieve the essential capabilities are left to future data strategy implementation plans.
3.1. Architecture
This strategy emphasizes access to data and the capability to adjust requirements in stride with changes in technology and data sources. DoD architecture, enabled by enterprise cloud and other open-architecture capabilities, must allow pivoting on data more rapidly than adversaries are able to adapt. The ability to develop and deploy lightweight applications rapidly and continuously in support of user needs revolutionizes how DoD uses data and leads to a strategic advantage. An agile architectural approach enables incremental value to be delivered by balancing emergent design and intentional architecture. This agile approach allows the architecture of data and systems (even a large solution) to evolve over time, while simultaneously supporting the needs of current users.
3.2. Standards
DoD employs a family of standards that include not only commonly recognized approaches for the management and utilization of data assets, but also proven and successful methods for representing and sharing data. Given the diversity of DoD systems, these standards should be applied at the earliest practical point in the data lifecycle and industry standards for an open data architecture should be used wherever practical. Standards are not an end unto themselves, but rather, they provide value when enabling data and information to be readily and securely utilized and exchanged. Additionally, physical encoding of the data interchange specifications will allow operations in congested and contested environments. Additionally, the DoD CDO will work with the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), to ensure that data-related material capabilities are tested and evaluated so the effectiveness and suitability of the technologies are known.
3.3. Governance
Data governance provides the principles, policies, processes, frameworks, tools, metrics, and oversight required to effectively manage data at all levels, from creation to disposition. Data governance allows stakeholders to be heard and represented in an organized fashion. For DoD, data governance will be executed at cascading levels, with all issues being resolved at the lowest level possible. Data governance includes localized system decisions affecting data all the way through full records management of critical data assets within the Department. Further, it is essential for data management and records management to be properly implemented throughout the Department.
3.4. Talent and Culture
Moving the Department to a data-centric organization requires a cultural transformation with the DoD workforce at its heart. DoD will continue to evolve its decision-making culture to one soundly based upon data and analytics enabled by technology. A modern, agile, information-advantaged DoD workforce (leaders, service members, civilians, and contractors) will be increasingly empowered to work with data, make data-informed decisions, create evidence-based policies, and implement effectual processes. We must carefully cultivate our data talent to create and sustain these capabilities. We must provide data skill training, establish centers for data engineering excellence, and foster a supportive ecosystem for collaboration among data experts.
4. G O A L S A N D E N A B L I N G O B J E C T I V E S
A core tenet of the DoD Data Strategy is the understanding that data is not an IT asset, but an essential and integral part of the mission itself. Data is ubiquitous. DoD weapons platforms, connected devices, sensors, training facilities, test ranges, and business systems generate enormous volumes of data of which all retain and share their data for broader use. It is critical that data be of high quality, accurate, complete, timely, protected, and trustworthy. As such, the Department makes data a strategic asset by establishing the following goals.
DoD data will be:
Visible – Consumers can locate the needed data. Accessible – Consumers can retrieve the data. Understandable – Consumers can find descriptions of data to recognize the content, context, and applicability. Linked – Consumers can exploit complementary data elements through innate relationships. Trustworthy – Consumers can be confident in all aspects of data for decision-making. Interoperable – Consumers and producers have a common representation and comprehension of data. Secure – Consumers know that data is protected from unauthorized use and manipulation.
4.1. Goal: Make Data Visible
The goal of making data visible enables authorized users to discover the existence of data that is of particular interest or value. Data stewards, data custodians, and functional data managers are all responsible and obligated to make their data visible to authorized users by identifying, registering, and exposing data in a way that makes it easily discoverable across the enterprise, and to external partners as appropriate. Moving towards this type of data visibility allows users (person and non- person entities) to discover and rapidly identify who is responsible for specific data assets, the location of data assets, the types of data assets available, and the means of accessing the data assets.
DoD will know it has made progress on making data visible when:
Objective 1: Data is advertised and available for authorized users when and where needed.
Objective 2: DoD implements metadata standards including location and access methods for shared data.
Objective 6: Adaptive, intelligent systems monitor data streams and identify opportunities to transform, combine, or derive new data providing increased insights.
4.4. Goal: Make Data Linked
Data-driven decision-making requires DoD data to be linked such that relationships and dependencies can be uncovered and maintained. Adhering to industry best-practices for open data standards, data catalogs, and metadata tagging, the Department ensures that connections across disparate sources can be made and leveraged for analytics.
DoD will know it has made progress on making data linked when:
Objective 1: DoD implements globally unique identifiers so data can be easily discovered, linked, retrieved, and referenced. Objective 2: DoD utilizes common metadata standards that allow data to be joined and integrated.
4.5. Goal: Make Data Trustworthy
DoD data requires trust to deliver the needed value to its Service members, civilians, and stakeholders. Lacking confidence in the data may result in less timely decision-making or, consequently, no decision when one is warranted.
DoD will know it has made progress toward making data trustworthy when:
Objective 1: DoD budget requests and the supporting budget process integrate data-focused evidence and Learning Agendas (see P.L. 115-435).
Objective 2: DoD data has protection, lineage, and pedigree metadata bound throughout its lifecycle.
Objective 3: DoD executes data quality management techniques to assess and enhance data quality.
Objective 4: DoD implements master data management for business, intelligence, and warfighting data. Objective 5: DoD properly tags and maintains all appropriate data and records in accordance with established processes and policies.
4.6. Goal: Make Data Interoperable
Properly exchanging data between systems and maintaining semantic understanding are critical for successful decision-making and joint military operations. Achieving semantic as well as syntactic interoperability using common data formats and machine-to-machine communications accelerates advanced algorithm development and provides a strategic advantage to the Department.
DoD will know it has made progress toward making data interoperable when:
Objective 1: DoD documents and implements data exchange specifications for all systems, including those of coalition partners.
Objective 2: Exchange specifications contain required metadata and convey standardized semantic meaning with the data set.
Objective 3: Public data assets are machine-readable and available for consumption.
Objective 4: DoD rapidly mediates differing data standards and formats without mission- critical loss of fidelity, precision, or accuracy.
Objective 5: DoD develops and promulgates a data-tagging strategy and subsequent implementation plan to enable data interoperability.
4.7. Goal: Make Data Secure
As per the DoD Cyber Risk Reduction Strategy, protecting DoD data while at rest, in motion, and in use (within applications, with analytics, etc.) is a minimum barrier to entry for future combat and weapon systems. Using a disciplined approach to data protection, such as attribute-based access control, across the enterprise allows DoD to maximize the use of data while, at the same time, employing the most stringent security standards to protect the American people.
DoD will know it has made progress toward making data secure when:
Objective 1: Granular privilege management (identity, attributes, permissions, etc.) is implemented to govern the access to, use of, and disposition of data.
Objective 2: Data stewards regularly assess classification criteria and test compliance to prevent security issues resulting from data aggregation.
Objective 3: DoD implements approved standards for security markings, handling restrictions, and records management.
Objective 4: Classification and control markings are defined and implemented; content and record retention rules are developed and implemented.
Objective 5: DoD implements data loss prevention technology to prevent unintended release and disclosure of data. Objective 6: Only authorized users are able to access and share data.
Objective 7: Access and handling restriction metadata are bound to data in an immutable manner.
Objective 8: Access, use, and disposition of data are fully audited.
5. O P E R A T I O N A L I Z I N G T H E S T R A T E G Y
Operationalizing the principles in this Strategy is an enduring Department-wide effort. Initial areas for early progress include strengthening data governance, focused engagement in key mission areas, and the execution of detailed Component implementation plans.
Senior Leader Decision Support: Senior leaders, including the Deputy Secretary, have directed the development of clear, quantifiable metrics to inform a wide-range of management decisions, such as options for implementing the National Defense Strategy. The data community must support efforts to provide current, decision-quality data along with a platform of tools for analysis and visualization. This approach will accelerate the Department’s transition to using live, interactive data in place of static slides to inform strategic outcomes.
Business Analytics: The DoD Comptroller, working with the Chief Management Officer (CMO) and others, is leading an effort to ingest, analyze, and display a wide range of business data; this includes information on budget, procurement, inventory, logistics, and personnel. The data governance community will use the insights from this effort to inform their policies on issues such as authoritative data sources, consistent metadata labeling, standard taxonomies, data provenance, and interfaces (e.g., APIs). This effort could also foster migration to a common data platform for all business analytics across the Department.
5.3. Implementation Plans
To implement this Strategy, Components will develop or convert their extant Data Strategies into measurable Data Strategy Implementation Plans. The CDO Council will support this effort with a common lexicon and common metrics/measures of performance for these plans. This information will be used to identify milestones, track progress, and illustrate data improvements for stakeholders.
6. C O N C L U S I O N
Data underpins digital modernization and is increasingly the fuel of every DoD process, algorithm, and weapon system. The DoD Data Strategy describes an ambitious approach for transforming the Department into a data-driven organization. This requires strong and effective data management coupled with close partnerships with users, particularly warfighters. Every leader must treat data as a weapon system, stewarding data throughout its lifecycle and ensuring it is made available to others. The Department must provide its personnel with the modern data skills and tools to preserve U.S. military advantage in day-to-day competition and ensure that they can prevail in conflict.
