An instructional design reference mission for search and rescue operations

Abstract

The objective of this instructional guide is to help learners gain practice with the proper framing of a problem for analysis, the first and most critical step in systems architecture and design. A Design Reference Mission (DRM) is outlined and populated with example content for a notional Search and Rescue (SAR) mission. The DRM establishes an operational context, description(s) of the environment and situations in which a system of interest is expected to operate, an operational narrative containing enough detail to generate multiple operational scenario variants, a sequence of operational activities and interactions between each system and other systems in its environment, and measures for establishing goals for mission success. The DRM is to be used to derive specific scenarios for use in making design decisions concerning candidate operational and solution architectures aimed at satisfying the mission success requirements.