Case for change
Drivers
The following factors are driving the need for a Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF) data strategy:
- Strong, Secure, Engaged: The defence policy, released in 2017, outlines a number of initiatives to modernize the CAF as well as the business of Defence. Many of these initiatives have a strong association with data, either through the capture of data or through the use of data. A strategy is needed to put in place the structures and processes to better manage and leverage data to achieve these objectives;
- Changing nature of conflict: Conflict is no longer limited to the traditional domains of sea, land, air (and more recently, space). Nations are increasingly including a new domain of conflict: cyber. This new domain can have impacts over broad geographic areas with minimal resource expenditure. In recent years, social media has been used to spread misinformation and shape perception and public opinion on current and potential conflict. Data becomes important not only to identify threats, but also to respond to those threats. Additionally, conflict is increasingly becoming multi-domain, with threats from multiple domains at the same time. DND/CAF needs to be able to respond across multiple domains, maintaining interoperability internally and with partners such as NATO allies;
- Variety and volume of data: Traditional military platforms like ships, tanks, and planesare now data platforms, full of sensors and systems that capture, create, and use data in large volumes. Social media and the internet provide a wealth of data. Additionally, the line between structured and unstructured data is becoming blurred, forcing the organization to adapt to new ways of storing, finding, and using data;
- Data-driven advanced technologies: There has been rapid proliferation of new and maturing technologies (e.g. analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality) that industry and government are exploiting to create value and advantage for their organizations. There is value in these technologies to DND/CAF, and many of these rely heavily on access to high quality data. Further descriptions of how data and advanced technologies are intertwined can be found in ANNEX C;
- Requirement to measure and report on outcomes: The Policy on Results states that all government departments must develop and report on a Departmental Results Framework (DRF) and their Program Inventory (PI). To effectively and efficiently report on the outcomes delivered by DND/CAF, the organization must have the tools and skills to find and analyze data, while also ensuring that the underlying data are of sufficient quality;
- Open Government: The Directive on Open Government states that DND/CAF must make data openly available. To meet this mandate, DND/CAF must have processes in place to evaluate data for sensitivity that may prevent sharing, and identify candidate data for sharing; and
- The requirement to optimize defence spending: Canada has a mid-size military force, and cannot compete based on amount of materiel, or on numbers of military personnel. Instead we must be better prepared, better trained, and more agile and responsive than our adversaries. As a consequence, DND/CAF must find ways of delivering effective and efficient military capabilities using all the tools available, including better use of data.
“I want to be able to ask big questions and address policy constraints”
- Interview with CAF General/Flag Officer
“We are data rich and information hungry”
- Interview with CAF General/Flag Officer
Challenges
The data strategy is an opportunity to address a number of data-related challenges that DND/CAF faces, including:
- Lack of awareness of DND/CAF data: As an enterprise, there is little coordinated and consolidated knowledge or awareness of the data that is collected, used, and maintained in the organization. This limits the ability to generate insights from data;
- Inability to make decisions about data: DND/CAF does not have a comprehensive, agreed upon data governance framework. This lack of decision-making framework affects the organization’s ability to share, integrate, aggregate, and otherwise use data;
- Ineffective data management practices: DND/CAF does not have effective data management practices, and data are not well-managed throughout their lifecycle;
- Unwillingness to share data: Data within DND/CAF is typically held in silos, and personnel are reluctant to share or provide access to that data internally. This limits the organization’s ability to obtain value from data through aggregation and enhancement, and also prevents the organization from meeting its open data commitment;
- Lack of trust in data: DND/CAF has limited tools and abilities to evaluate the quality of data and trace the data from capture through to use. As a result, personnel perceive data as unreliable and are reluctant to use data for decision-making;
- Inflexible legacy systems and processes: DND/CAF has many source systems that capture and use data, which in some cases were heavily customized to accommodate specific processes. This limits DND/CAF’s ability to adopt industry practices, address data integrity issues, explore innovative approaches, and change business processes;
- Relatively low data literacy: Collectively, Defence Team members have lower levels of data literacy, lacking competency to evaluate the quality of data, to understand the limitations of data, and to envision potential uses and their value;
- Lack of a data culture: The culture of DND/CAF must change to embrace data as an asset that requires effort to manage, and to allow for risk so that they can use data in new and different ways.
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