The army design methodology
The army design methodology is the process or methodology used to apply critical and creative thinking, understand, picture, and define problems that seem not to be conversant, approaching approaches to solving them (ADP5-0). The methodology includes thinking interlinked activities, which play a crucial role in planning and making decisions. Army design methodology enables the commanders and the army to think about a particular situation for a better understanding deeply, hence putting them in a better position to develop an approach to manage and solve problems. Additionally, several activities are always linked with the army design methodology. Thy includes framing an operational environment, framing problems, framing solutions, and sometimes reframing.
The environment’s framing entails developing an in-depth understanding of the current environment for operation and picturing the desired one, through graphic representation and description. The environments are comprised of different parts and their nodes, interests, tenancies, and anomalies. This stage enables commanders and staff to explore systems and set boundaries for inquiry thoroughly. Secondly, framing the problem involves identifying the existing inconsistencies and obstacles that inhibit attaining the desired goal. It is the seclusion of the primary causes of the issues and understanding their respective relations and dynamics. However, identifying the actual problem is not easy; hence the commander and staff need to reframe their results by conducting new researches (Dagher 2018).
Lastly, the solution framing stage utilizes the newfound understanding of the environmental frame and the problem frame. An operational approach that is broad is then generated. The operation approach is significant as it identifies the resources required and provides both the focus needed and the development boundaries. Concurrently, commanders, and staff need to reframe their solutions, as it does not isolate their proposed solutions from the knowledge gained during operation (Dagher 2018).
The army design methodology is usually employed in complex situations. Sometimes forces face a range of demands that include geopolitical, cultural, social, and military factors, interacting in complicated ways, requiring in-depth thinking and planning before coming up with a solution. Being that the situations cannot be handled using the traditional approach to operational planning, the army design approach is employed. The army design can be applied in all the complex scenarios in the military, and sometimes in managing a project. It can be used to identify the requirements in a project, address the various needs and concerns, to manage the stakeholders towards meeting a project’s goals and objectives, and balancing the project’s constraints in the competition (Casey 2015).