In this series of blogs, I wish to continue my discussion around the Project Knowledge Model (PKM) big picture, into what I have called the Organisational Program Framework or Organisational Portfolio Framework. But this time in a context - the Australian Defence context. Hopefully, it is then relatively easy to place this into any other government or corporate context. If you wish to see the generic view of this approach please go to Organisational Program Framework (01), Organisational Program Framework (02) and Organisational Program Framework (03).

I have been invited in the past to discuss my ideas on how the convoluted Defence (Australian Defence) capability development system comes together. Perhaps more accurately, I am asked how I make sense of the entire system. But first, let me address why the system can appear so convoluted ...and this is me surmising and assuming of course, because it has been a while since I was directly involved.

The whole Defence capability development system can be quite a labyrinth of papers, discussions, committees, acronyms, organisations, hierarchies, presentations, and more!! BUT ....there are a few concepts and principles that let you see through all this to the essence of what it is or perhaps what it should be.

In the first instance we need to understand that there are three broad levels fidelity in the Defence Capability Development context. I have made them close to identical to the generic levels at Organisational Program Framework (01) but with a subtle difference - the second level is "operational" rather than "operations" as this is what Defence tends to call it.

So this "vertical" dimension has three levels strategic, operational and system.

I sometimes get told that the third level should in fact be "Tactical" rather than "System". But this is not the case. If it was a military operation context, then certainly, the third level could be "Tactical", but this is an organisational development context, so the third level is "System".