Using Digital Viewpoint Concept Model for Defining Digital Engineering Information Exchange

This paper describes the goals, methods, approaches, and preliminary results of a research task within the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC). Evidence across the Services and industry has affirmed digital engineering is a critical practice necessary to support acquisition in an environment of increasing global challenges, dynamic threats, rapidly evolving technologies, and increasing life expectancy of our systems currently in operation. Digital engineering updates the systems engineering practices to take full advantage of computational technology, modeling, data analytics, and data sciences. The Department of Defense's vision for digital engineering is to modernize how the Department designs, develops, delivers, operates, and sustains systems, while continuing to practice systems engineering efficiently and effectively. Digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way acquisition and engineering are performed across a wide range of government agencies, industries, and academia. As the Department of Defense transitions to digital engineering, there is a need to develop and maintain an acquisition workforce and culture that is literate in model-based engineering, competent in digital engineering models, methods, tools, and understands digital artifacts across the acquisition lifecycle.This paper outlines the development of the Digital Engineering Competency Framework by the Systems Engineering Research Center. The purpose of the Digital Engineering Competency Framework is to provide clear guidance for the Department of Defense acquisition workforce, in particular the engineering acquisition workforce, through clearly defined competencies that illuminate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors required for digital engineering professionals. The approach taken to develop the Digital Engineering Competency Framework draws from existing competency models discovered during a literature search and from the practicing Digital Engineering community. The development process for the Digital Engineering Competency Framework relied initially on literature findings to develop a draft model that was reviewed by subject matter experts through a series of workshops. No existing competency models focused on digital engineering (or model-based systems engineering or model-based engineering) were found during the literature review. However, several related competency models were identified, and these informed the initial draft model. At appropriate points, the draft model(s) were assessed through community presentations and industry review and appropriate revisions were made.The Digital Engineering Competency Framework has currently completed several iterations of subject matter expert review and revisions and is approaching a finalized general structure. The overarching structure of the DECF will consist of competency areas, proficiency levels within the competency, and constituting knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors. The specific knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors that will be associated with each competency area are the primary elements still changing in current iterations. Once the model is finalized, it will be compared with the existing Defense Acquisition University curriculum to determine what elements of such existing curriculum already support these competencies. Gaps will be noted, and training recommendations will be developed. As with the development of the model itself, this will be an iterative process. Another critical use case for the Digital Engineering Competency Framework is to enable hiring for Digital Engineering Positions, given Competency models and frameworks are used by hiring managers to ensure that individuals have the required and appropriate skillsets to adequately perform their jobs.

Digital engineering (DE) is “an integrated digital approach that uses authoritative sources of systems’ data and models as a continuum across disciplines to support lifecycle activities from concept through disposal. A DE ecosystem is an interconnected infrastructure, environment, and methodology that enables the exchange of digital artifacts from an authoritative source of truth.” (DAU, 2017) Digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way acquisition and engineering are performed across a wide range of government agencies, industries, and academia and is characterized by the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, changing fundamental operations and how results are delivered in terms of new value to customers. It includes cultural change centered on alignment across leadership, strategy, customers, operations, and workforce evolution. In 2020, the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) developed a Digital Engineering Competency Framework (DECF) to support the US Department of Defense (DoD). This paper provides an update to the DECF (version. 1.1) and a mapping of some existing DoD training resources against the DECF. It discusses gaps and provides a few high‐level recommendations on how to build DE competency in the DoD acquisition workforce. Though the DECF and the training included here are specific to the DoD, the competency framework is intended to be relevant to anyone working in the DE space.

To promote sustainable rural development and digital transformation and based on 2018 county-level digital rural indices and microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPSs), this study examines how the digital environment impacts the entrepreneurial behavior of rural households. The results of the study were as follows: (1) The optimization of the digital environment significantly increases entrepreneurial possibilities for farmers, indicating that, the higher the digital rural development index, the easier it is for farmers to start their own businesses. (2) As digital village construction progresses, the impacts of digital hard environments on rural household entrepreneurship decrease, while the influence of digital soft environments increases. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that digital literacy facilitates farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior through the digital environment. Farmers with stronger intentions to participate in commercial activities and information acquisition more actively utilize the digital environment to seek business opportunities and make entrepreneurial decisions. (4) Further analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between the “second-level digital divide”, represented by digital literacy, and the development of digital villages. (5) To fully implement China’s Digital Rural Strategy, it is crucial to not only establish digital infrastructure but to also enhance farmers’ digital literacy and promote the development of a digital soft environment.

Digital workplace transformation has considerably more profound implications when redesigning a workplace than deciding which technologies to use or not. Not only will the equipment utilized in work activities change in the future due to digital work, but working activities and processes themselves will frequently alter as well. Employee psychological requirements, such as the desire for relatedness, competence, and autonomy, are significant in this setting because they influence the employees' willingness to embrace their new workplace. More precisely, employees will be more inclined to embrace digital transformation if they believe that working in a digital environment would make it easier for them to achieve higher performance, greater happiness, and personal well-being. Therefore, this study aims to ascertain if employee participation, well-being, and support for digital work contribute to the workplace's digital transformation. By doing this, we bridge a gap in the research and provide evidence that the interpersonal relatedness of employees in a digital work environment significantly impacts their performance and overall well-being. Employee intentions to support the shift to a digital workplace are subsequently increased. To meet the difficulties of digital transformation, we hope this study will assist pre-digital organizations in reevaluating their plans in light of employee participation. The report also invites researchers to use missing value analysis to examine whether and how those parameters are formed differently in light of the COVID-19 pandemic scenario in the northern state of the USA.

Digital engineering is increasingly introduced for managing and supporting the development of systems for space. However, few academic teams have the competency needed to manage projects using digital engineering and systems engineering. The subject of this paper is an academic CubeSat project in which a variety of digital engineering techniques are used. The tailoring that has been applied to fit the academic environment including students from different disciplines and levels of maturity is described. This paper shows how a customized Scrum methodology for hardware and software integrated with a workflow in a digital tool environment has given positive results for both the team and the system development. This paper also discusses how to introduce new members to the team and how to train them to work with digital engineering as a multidisciplinary team. This paper presents how the systems engineering and project management activities have been integrated into the academic CubeSat project, evaluate how well this fusion worked, and estimate its potential to be used as a guide for other digital engineering projects.

At the current stage of development of digital business transformation, the need to find flexible methods of change management is growing. Modern business is in difficult conditions, when the external and internal environment of the company and requirements for projects are constantly changing. Traditional management does not always help to withstand the competition of innovative companies. The success of companies lies in flexible reactions, readiness for changes and professional change management. Correct assessment of digital technology, setting right company goals, compliance with certain stages, principles and provisions of change management leads to successful digital transformation of business. Change management refers to both the organizational and behavioral adjustments that must be made to accommodate and sustain change. By combining human and technical capabilities, companies can accelerate their digital transformation and maintain momentum. The article is devoted to substantiating the importance of using change management tools and technologies in the context of digital business transformation. The purpose of the article is to study the peculiarities of change management in conditions of rapid digital transformations. The research was based on the basic principles of the theory of change management, scientific practices from domestic and foreign studies on the power of change management and digital transformation. The research methods that were used: dialectical method of cognition; logical and system analysis; abstract-logical and others. The essence of change management and the essence of digital transformation are considered. Change management strategies and reasons for resistance to changes in the company are substantiated. The factors and current technological trends that affect the success of change management related to digital transformation have been determined. Recommendations are offered for enterprises regarding change management and their adaptation to changes in the digital environment in order to increase the competitiveness of companies.

As the largest Department of Defense (DoD) land user in Alaska, the U.S. Army oversees over 600,000 hectares of land, including remote areas accessible only by air, water, and winter ice roads. Spatial information related to the energy resources and infrastructure that exist on and adjacent to DoD installations can help inform decision makers when it comes to installation planning. The Energy Atlas−Alaska portal provides a secure value-added resource to support the decision-making process for energy management, investments in installation infrastructure, and improvements to energy resiliency and sustainability. The Energy Atlas–Alaska portal compiles spatial information and provides that information through a secure online portal to access and examine energy and related resource data such as energy resource potential, energy corridors, and environmental information. The information database is hosted on a secure Common Access Card-authenticated portal that is accessible to the DoD and its partners through the Army Geospatial Center’s Enterprise Portal. This Enterprise Portal provides effective visualization and functionality to support analysis and inform DoD decision makers. The Energy Atlas–Alaska portal helps the DoD account for energy in contingency planning, acquisition, and life-cycle requirements and ensures facilities can maintain operations in the face of disruption.

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of comprehensive digitalization in the context of ensuring and protecting human rights at the international level. It has been established that the relevant processes have become an integral part of both the professional and private life of every person. Information and communication technologies are rapidly being introduced into all spheres of society, which not only creates new opportunities but also poses previously unknown risks related to the protection of personal data, the fight against disinformation, espionage, and other offenses committed in the digital environment. In this regard, existing human rights protection mechanisms cannot remain unchanged but must respond to the challenges of today. However, their establishment requires a comprehensive study of the impact of digitalization on universal and regional human rights systems, the first stage of which should be an analysis of key terms and concepts. In this study, the author attempted to distinguish between the concepts of “digitization,” “digitalization,” and “digital transformation.” Digitization is the initial stage of the relevant processes, laying the foundation for the introduction of digital technologies into manual processes. The next stage, digitalization, facilitates traditional methods of performing certain tasks by incorporating digital technologies without fundamentally transforming the operations being carried out. Digital transformation is the final stage, resulting in profound socio-economic changes. A conclusion has been made about the close connection between the analyzed concepts, which constitute separate stages of the same process. It has been established that international human rights law is least affected by information and communication technologies at the digitization stage, and that this influence is predominantly positive. Digitization and digital transformation give rise to new rights, redefine traditional ones, and bring new opportunities for the average person. At the same time, with the development of digital technologies, the risks associated with human activity in the digital environment are also growing, which requires active action from the international community.

Digital transformation maturity assessment framework for large infrastructure asset owners

Digital transformation is one of the European Commission's policy priorities in the last few years. High quality and inclusive education and training are a key part of reaching this object and ensuring that all people are prepared to live and be educated in the digital age. These priorities coincide with the crucial need to provide inclusive digital learning environments to all learners including those with special educational needs – disadvantaged and disabled learners. The paper presents a primary analysis of the results of a sociological qualitative survey conducted in the framework of the project “Inclusive digital environments to enable high-quality education and training for disadvantaged learners”. Methodology: The main method used was an in-depth interview. Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted among School Leaders and Teaching Staff in High Schools and Universities, Primary and Secondary Education Organizations in Bulgaria. The data was collected from October 2021 to January 2022. This study was provoked by inequalities in inclusive education and therefore by variations in the way of remote learning that has been delivered across EU Member States and Bulgaria, in particular. The aim of the study was provoked not only by the exceptional significance and reflection of digital education on basic human needs. It seeks to provide insights into the national special education traditions in the country and aims to establish how these have influenced current developments in inclusive education together with digital environments for disadvantaged and disabled learners. The main conclusion approached by the study is that there is a major need to raise awareness about unequal access to inclusive education for students with disabilities in Bulgarian society, as well as a need of providing а detailed information on how to implement more inclusive educational practices and at sharing promising examples of inclusive methods in education for learners with special educational needs. Keywords: Digital Education, Digital Environments, Special education needs, Disadvantaged and Disabled Learners Acknowledgments: The article has been developed in the framework of the European Funded Project ERASMUS+ EACEA/34/2019 - Social Inclusion and Common Values - Action: the contribution in the field of education and training, entitled: ‘INCLUDEME - Inclusive digital environments to enable high-quality education and training for disadvantaged learners’. The project is co-funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ programme.

Federal elections may be good for democracy, but the campaigns — particularly the lengthy one recently held in Canada — can be crippling for plans to better arm our military. Just before the election was called, there were public signs of important progress being made in what has long been a frustratingly slow and bureaucratically complex procurement process. But then the campaign left the Department of National Defence and other federal departments unable to secure approvals from either a defence minister or the Treasury Board, until the election ended and the new prime minister appointed the current cabinet. There had already been upheaval prior to that: In the first seven months of 2015, the three senior leaders at the Canadian Forces and the Defence Department (including the minister) had been replaced, along with many other people critical to the procurement process. In addition, there had been changes in the Public Works Department and the Defence Procurement Strategy Secretariat. Frustrating and disappointing delays have long been a matter of course in Canada’s defence procurement process. In 2014/15, the number of ministerial or Treasury Board approvals to allow projects to proceed was half of that in 2009/10. Yet the demand for approvals has not abated. In addition to the turnover of key figures involved in the procurement and approval process, delays have come from a number of major steps added to the process, making an already lengthy and complex system even more so. To be sure, these steps were added in the pursuit of improved financial management and project management, with the aim of addressing longstanding problems. But it will take years to see if those objectives have been realized. An irony here is that the budget for military procurement has increased. Between 2004 and 2009, the Defence Department’s procurement budget nearly doubled. But the funding was never matched by the capacity to manage it. In 2003, the Material Group had a ratio of 2,600 staff for every $1 billion in procurement funds. By 2009, the ratio had become 1,800 staff for every $1 billion in procurement funds. Since then, the ratio has only gotten substantially worse. New systems now require extensive analysis to determine if a more intensive Treasury Board review is required. A recently created panel designed to provide a “third-party challenge function” on requirements for major procurements has created some confusion among officials as to what documentation they should be producing to support procurement initiatives. And the panel’s terms of reference are extensive, ranging from evaluating a project’s alignment with government policy and the level of its fit with allies’ capabilities, to the role of Canadian suppliers and the anticipated support concept. Still, there are some indications that changes enacted in 2014 to the procurement process may eventually help mitigate delays in the future. There are continual improvements being made to the way the Defence Department conducts project costing as well as how the Treasury Board Secretariat evaluates the costs, which will help improve the compatibility between estimates and newly introduced frameworks. New methods of better prioritizing projects have also been introduced. And there are plans underway intended to reduce the time involved in the department’s internal approval processes. For now, however, these attempts at improvement have been focused on the lower-dollar-figure approvals done by the minister. It remains to be seen if, first, they work, and secondly, if they can then be used to facilitate Treasury Board approvals, as well.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is undergoing a Digital Transformation (DT), which will affect all acquisition processes in some way. As documents are replaced with digital models, the existing processes will be required to facilitate emerging concepts like the Rapid Acquisition Process (RAP) and Test and Evaluation as a Continuum (TEaaC). Traditional Test and Evaluation (T&E) will be augmented by automated digital testing in all program lifecycle phases. Digital testing will rely on many forms of digital models, including Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), linked together via a digital thread and an Authoritative Source of Truth (ASOT). Validation of such digital artifacts will be paramount in assuring system developers and test engineers use accurate and credible models for decisions. This paper proposes a model-based validation technique, details a proof-of-concept, and describes how it may enable future acquisition.

Digital transformation contributes to the creation of a modern educational ecosystem focused on training specialists capable of operating effectively in a digital environment. The article presents a comprehensive study of the process of formation and development of digital transformation in higher education institutions. The author identifies and characterizes four main stages of digitalization of the educational process. The proposed periodization allows tracing the evolution of digital changes in higher education, from the initial use of computing technology to the implementation of modern intelligent digital technologies and advanced educational platforms. The article analyzes contemporary scientific approaches to defining the concept of “digital transformation,” its stages, goals, and implementation features within the higher education system. Special attention is given to the technological factors of digitalization, which significantly influence the restructuring of the content, forms, and methods of learning, as well as the management of educational institutions. The impact of digital technologies on ensuring accessibility, continuity, and individualization of the learning process – key components of the modern concept of lifelong learning – is revealed. Some challenges accompanying digital transformation in higher education are identified, including digital inequality between regions, disparities in the technical equipment of institutions, ambiguous perceptions of digitalization by administrators and educators, and the urgent need to enhance the digital competence of all participants in the educational process. The article outlines prospects for further research on updating methodological approaches for training specialists in a digital environment, developing effective models of digital competence for teachers and students, and improving state educational policy regarding the digitalization of higher education in Ukraine. The importance of continued analysis of the social, technological, and pedagogical aspects of digital transformation is highlighted.

Digital transformation has been one of the main trends in organizations in recent years, and digital literacy is a critical factor in the success of this transformation. Digital transformation involves the use of digital technologies to improve an organization’s processes, products, and services. For this transformation to be successful, it is necessary for employees to have knowledge of and skills in digital technologies. Digital literacy allows employees to understand technologies and their applications, know how to use them efficiently and safely, evaluate and select the most appropriate digital tools for each task, and be prepared to deal with problems and challenges that arise in the digital environment. This study investigates the relationship between digital transformation and digital literacy through a Systematic Literature Review conducted in accordance with Kitchenham’s guidelines. A total of 54 articles, published from 2018, were analyzed from databases such as Scopus, Science Direct, IEEE and Springer. The results reveal that digital literacy significantly influences the success of digital transformation, particularly in areas such as employee adaptability, innovation capacity, and digital tool integration. Key mediating and moderating factors identified include organizational learning culture, leadership support, ongoing training programs, and technological infrastructure. Based on these findings, an explanatory model was developed that maps the interaction between these variables and their impact on digital transformation outcomes. The study offers practical implications for organizations seeking to enhance their digital maturity: investing in employee digital literacy development, aligning leadership strategies with digital initiatives, and fostering a supportive culture for digital adoption are crucial steps. Thus, this study is relevant because it seeks to understand how digital literacy can impact Digital Transformation in organizations and, through the construction of an explanatory model, allows the identification of variables that influence this relationship by developing strategies to improve the digital literacy of employees in organizations.

The potential benefits of the adoption of cyber-physical production systems (CPPSs) and their significant role in enabling smart manufacturing is well recognized today. However, it is less clear how such CPPS can be most effectively and consistently engineered and maintained throughout their lifecycle due to the existing divide in the information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) landscape and ad hoc integration practices that result in inconsistent data and data models at various levels of manufacturing processes. The work presented in this article addresses this problem by envisioning a connective framework to support the engineering of CPPS through the use of a set of digital twins consistent with the real system throughout its lifecycle, not just used in the design and deployment phases. A review of the latest perspectives on using digital integration frameworks, methods, and solutions for lifecycle engineering of CPPS is provided in this article. This article demonstrates how a suitable framework, named SIMPLE, can be realized to effectively address the lack of consistent data models throughout the engineering lifecycle, including implementation details and example cases developed by the authors at the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) in selected industrial sectors. Consideration is given to supporting cyber-to-physical systems' connectivity and extendable engineering toolsets, forming the basis for multidisciplinary digital engineering environments. Key discussion points include the role and importance of effective integration of IT and OT, suitable frameworks for integration and collaboration.