London, UK and Washington DC, USA – 19th May 2008. A new industry standards group – the UPDM Group - has been established to build on previous efforts within the Object Management Group (OMG) to develop a modeling standard that supports both the US Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) and the UKs Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework (MODAF). The modeling standard is called the Unified Profile for DoDAF and MODAF (UPDM). The groups mission statement is the following: “The UPDM Group is committed to creating a unified profile for MODAF and DoDAF, leveraging the capabilities of UML, SysML and other OMG standards.”

UPDM defines an industry standard UML representation for DoDAF 1.5 and MODAF 1.2 compliant enterprise architectures. Standardizing the architecture definition language representation for both DoDAF and MODAF will result in significant improvements in the consistency, quality and tool interoperability of enterprise architectures that comply with these frameworks.

The group will also draft a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a follow-on profile to support DoDAF 2.0 and the next generation MODAF, which are both soon to be released. This will ensure that the drive to create a standardized approach to architectural frameworks will continue.

In addition to developing a specification that fully supports DoDAF/MODAF, which is essential for organizations developing NEC (Network Enabled Capability) systems, the UPDM Group will also make use of NATOs recently adopted architectural framework standard, NAF version 3. NAF is based on MODAF but has been extended to support Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

The UPDM Group will be co-chaired by Artisan Software Tools and No Magic. It will build on the work of the former UML Profile for DoDAF and MODAF Finalization Task Force (UPDM FTF), which expired after not producing a specification meeting the needs of the defense community, and hence not being endorsed by voting members at the OMGs Washington meeting in March 2008.

Although the UPDM Group is independent of the OMG, it plans to submit its new specification to the OMG as early as its September 2008 Technical Committee meeting, using its fast-track Request for Comments (RFC) adoption process, with the goal of having it adopted at the next OMG quarterly meeting.

"Because of their huge importance in defense procurement, the OMG remains committed to publishing a standardized UML profile for both DoDAF and MODAF,” said Andrew Watson of the Object Management Group. “We look forward to working closely with the submitters of this candidate specification as it is scrutinized by the OMG's members as part of our fast, open, vendor-neutral RFC process."

The UPDM Group also plans to set up a forum to enable interested parties to keep up-to-date with progress on the specification.

The membership of the UPDM Group comprises development tool vendors and defense industry contractors along with representatives of the key Government agency stakeholders - the DoD in the USA and the UKs MOD. The initial members include:

• Adaptive

• Artisan Software Tools

• BAE Systems

• DoD

• Embeddedplus Engineering

• Generic AB representing the Swedish Armed Forces

• Lockheed Martin

• Mitre

• MOD

• No Magic

• Raytheon

• Rolls-Royce

• Visumpoint

“It is vital that the UPDM specification not only meets the current needs of the key Government stakeholders - the DoD and the MOD – but also satisfies the requirements of all other interested parties as voting members of the OMG,” said Matthew Hause, one of the co-chairs of the UPDM Group. “However, in addition to developing a specification that fully supports these standards, we intend to be forward-looking by also making use of the new NATO Architectural Framework. Our objective is to fast-track the specification through the OMG.”

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