Relevance of JDARTS for the planning of the Swedish Armed Forces

Authors:

  • Jonas Hermelin

Publish date: 2013-04-18

Report number: FOI-R--3657--SE

Pages: 39

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • JDARTS
  • model based capability planning
  • decision support
  • defence planning
  • planning

Abstract

The Swedish Armed Forces use several different planning processes to prepare for both national and international changes. The complexity of the planning and the amount of people involved has led to the usage of different terminology and processes. This has had a negative impact on the traceability of planning analysis both within and between sections, as well as the communication between sections. There is thus an appeal of computer-based support systems that could systemize and structure the planning process improving the traceability and communication. An example of such a tool is JDARTS, which is a capability-based planning tool used by Nato. The objective of this report is to present an interview study that explores the relevance of JDARTS for the Swedish Armed Forces. During the interview study, JDARTS was presented to four respondents, representing four different planning processes. During the presentation of the tool, the respondents were asked of the tool's relevance in regards to their own domain. The respondents' knowledge of JDARTS was limited to a brief presentation and there was no possibility of testing the tool. This report indicates a potential of JDARTS to increase structure and traceability in the planning process. The tool will however require a large amount of work to create and restructure needed information, as well as the work of keeping this information up to date. This task would need to include the collaboration of several units involved in planning. This collaboration, using the same tool, is also central to facilitate better communication and understanding between different processes of planning.