Army Design Methodology
At first glance, the Army Design Methodology (ADM) seems to be a convoluted and typically optional pre-stage of Mission Analysis within the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). But the ADM is distinctly separate in goals, detail, and scope. At its heart, the ADM allows a commander and his staff to view a problem via three lenses: Operational Environment (which includes the Current and Desired End State), Problem Framing, and Operational Approach. To help our organization grasp these concepts, this paper uses two main historical examples. First, to break out of a military paradigm mindset, it provides an analogous story of the space race to explain what the ADM is and is not. Second, this paper uses the ADM to analyze two key portions
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To paraphrase ATP 5-0.1, the three lenses relationships to each other is as such: what pertinent elements exist that influence where I am at and where I am going (Operational Environment)? What is going to get in the way of me getting to where I want to go (Problem Framing)? And, what am I going to do in light of all this (Operational Approach)? Answers to these questions can be large or small; military, political, or economic; short-term or long-term. The ADM does not demand that these answer be novel or innovative. For example, since realpolitik – with states jostling for power via armies, diplomacy, and economic desire – existed for centuries in Europe and was the baseline for their formation, Bismarck and his staff’s analysis of the situation was sound. Or, as Clausewitz wrote: “Politics is the womb in which war develops.” In fact Clausewitz, writing a generation earlier, stated that the defeat of France lie in beating her army and conquering France. What the ADM does demand is strong-sense critical thinking; evaluating all positions, especially your own. Another benefit of the ADM is that it does not have to be transferred immediately to the MDMP. Not all problem sets demand an immediate solution. The understanding developed by one staff could be transferred later in the future to a new staff with a fresh set of eyes . . . and a new set of facts, relationships, and other injects. This is yet another distinction of the ADM that often pulls it out of the tactical level and up to the operational or even
To paraphrase ATP 5-0.1, the three lenses relationships to each other is as such: what pertinent elements exist that influence where I am at and where I am going (Operational Environment)? What is going to get in the way of me getting to where I want to go (Problem Framing)? And, what am I going to do in light of all this (Operational Approach)? Answers to these questions can be large or small; military, political, or economic; short-term or long-term. The ADM does not demand that these answer be novel or innovative. For example, since realpolitik – with states jostling for power via armies, diplomacy, and economic desire – existed for centuries in Europe and was the baseline for their formation, Bismarck and his staff’s analysis of the situation was sound. Or, as Clausewitz wrote: “Politics is the womb in which war develops.” In fact Clausewitz, writing a generation earlier, stated that the defeat of France lie in beating her army and conquering France. What the ADM does demand is strong-sense critical thinking; evaluating all positions, especially your own. Another benefit of the ADM is that it does not have to be transferred immediately to the MDMP. Not all problem sets demand an immediate solution. The understanding developed by one staff could be transferred later in the future to a new staff with a fresh set of eyes . . . and a new set of facts, relationships, and other injects. This is yet another distinction of the ADM that often pulls it out of the tactical level and up to the operational or even