DoD Architecture Framework Version 1.0, Volume 2 - AcqNotes.com

2.3 ARCHITECTURE DATA ELEMENTSAs stated earlier, architecture data are the underlying basic elements that comprise a givenarchitecture. The Framework products are those graphical, textual, and tabular items that aredeveloped in the course of gathering architecture data, identifying their composition into relatedarchitecture products and modeling the relationships among those products to describecharacteristics pertinent to the architecture purpose or intended use.2.3.1 Architecture Data ModelThe heart of interoperability is the preservation of meaning and relationships duringarchitecture data reuse. An architecture data model is a structured representation of thearchitecture data elements pertinent to an architecture that also defines the relationships amongarchitecture data. Agreement on an architecture data model is essential to the reuse ofarchitecture data, as well as the implementation of architecture databases, regardless of thetechnology chosen (e.g., relational or object-oriented) for building and managing architecturedatabases. In addition, a common architecture data model can serve as the basis for definingcommon Extensible Markup Language tags for architecture data import and export, productextraction, and direct exchange.2.3.2 Architecture Framework Data ModelThe All-DoD Core Architecture Data Model (CADM) was developed cooperatively byrepresentatives of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Combatant Commands, MilitaryServices, and Defense Agencies as the DoD standard architecture data model for Frameworkbasedarchitecture data elements. The CADM is built using the Integrated Definition for DataModeling (IDEF1X) [FIPS 184, 1993] methodology, notation, and forms. More than 95 percentof the entities and attributes from the CADM are approved as DoD architecture data standards.Using relational technology labels, for example, the entities from the CADM providespecifications for tables in a database, and the CADM attributes provide specifications for thefields (architecture data element attributes) in the rows of such tables [All-CADM, 2003a, b, c].2-7