Analytic Architecture for Joint Staff Decision Support

This report presents results from the first of a two-part study of the Joint Staff's analytic-support needs. The research focuses on the role of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), in the context of his authority as newly defined in theimplemented Goldwater-Nichols legislation. The purpose of the study is to determine what kind of analytic support is necessary to inform the CJCS's decisionmaking functions and to outline a possible architecture for providing that support. The authors address five main questions: (1) what roles do the CJCS and the Joint Staff play in DoD decision making processes, particularly those involving resource identification and allocation? (2) Where do the various Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS)-related processes that involve the Joint Staff intersect? (3) What is the state of the Joint Staff's current analytic environment and what information does it require to support well-informed decisionmaking? (4) what would an ideal analytic-support architecture look like? (5) How easily can existing processes accommodate recommended changes? (KAR) p. 8