| Business DEX (UK_Defence025):— plan | Date: 2009/05/12 17:54:29 Revision: 1.4 |
Even within the UK_Defence process model the word “Plan” can carry several different meanings. Neither the information flow names used in the model, nor typical business terminology, provide a reliable guide as to whether the Plan DEX, the Schedule DEX or the Document DEX, is the most appropriate format for use in any given case. This can only be determined by considering the nature of the information content of the flow.
The Plan DEX is designed to communicate a structured set of potential future activities, reflecting required sequencing, other logical dependencies, the groupings of activities and applicable trigger conditions.
The Plan DEX may also include a quantified list of the resources required to implement the plan.
A Plan differs from a Schedule in that it refers to the potential future tasks, and not to intended actual activities. As a result, a Plan DEX does not specify any actual calendar dates or times, although it may declare durations and periodicity.
A Plan DEX could be used, for example, as part of a Support Solution Definition to identify all of the tasks required to support a selected product, in a defined context. Such a Plan DEX would define all tasks potentially required to support a given product, their logical dependencies, any grouping of tasks into service intervals or other collections, and the specification of the conditions (task triggers) under which each task, or group of tasks, would fall due.
A Plan DEX may include or reference a supporting justification.
A Plan DEX requires definition of the context to which the plan applies. The context may be defined using text, or by identification of specific features of the context to which the plan applies. For a Capability Sustainment Plan the context should be specified by reference to a Deployment Environment, which includes identification of the product_group, the operating environment, the support organizations, the support locations and the support environment for which the plan was developed and to which it applies.
A Plan DEX, even if approved, is not intended to convey authority to begin work. This is achieved by a Work Order DEX, which can reference any relevant Task, Task List, Plan or Schedule.
A Plan DEX is often the precursor to the development of a schedule (see Schedule DEX) which is used to define an instance of use of a Plan, by adding details on the calendar dates and work location related to a set of intended actual activities, which are applicable to a specific product.
Many of the information flows within UK_Defence which include the word “plan” do so in the sense of a document describing future intention for addressing an area of work. Such documents – for example a Configuration Management Plan or an Obsolescence Plan – may contain some structured activities which could be represented by a Plan DEX, but they are generally better managed for exchange purposes explicitly as documents, and not by the Plan DEX itself.
The following flows within the UK_Defence Process Model are supported by the Plan DEX:
Typical UK_Defence Business Processes which generate the information defined by the Plan DEX include:
Typical UK_Defence Business Processes which use the information defined by the Plan DEX include:
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