Warfighter Mission Area Architecture Federation and Integration Portal

NIEM’s reusable terms, definitions, and repeatable processes allowed the Department of Defense (DoD) to plan, develop, and implement an enterprise solution faster. The Warfighter Mission Area Architecture Federation and Integration Portal  (WMAAFIP) is used by approximately 7,000 DoD staff members across more than 400 DoD organizations—and realizes cost savings of at least $4 million annually.

DoD has hundreds of thousands of staff members, warfighters, resources, and capabilities. A capability is defined as anything that the warfighter uses to do their job, whether it’s a tank, communications device, or IP service. At DoD, every capability has a requirements document associated with it, and every requirements document has an architecture model and data dictionary to support it. DoD uses an architecture framework to help organize and share the massive amount of information about its capabilities. DoD developed a standard for exchanging this information, but over time the standard became very complex and difficult to use.

Using NIEM, DoD created the WMAAFIP, an open source, centralized hub for architecture information on all of DoD’s capabilities. NIEM enabled DoD to share its architecture data dictionaries in a single, simplified, integrated view. Now, with information in a standardized structure and format, DoD can analyze and share information more effectively—even as DoD’s capabilities evolve and grow.