Can level of Information Systems Interoperability (LISI) improve DoD C4I Systems' Interoperability?

Abstract

Level of Information System Interoperability (LISI) is a maturity model and interactive process for assessing and improving interoperability. The heart of the LISI concept is the formulation of a system gcsprofilegcs which was created through the webbased LISI tool, Inspector 1.0. LISI considers five increasing levels of sophistication with respect to exchanging and sharing information and services. Each higher level represents a demonstrable increase in capabilities over the previous level of system-tosystem interaction. The increase is expressed in terms of four attributes: Procedures, Applications, Infrastructure, and Data. LISI Inspector leverages the data captured in the Inspector Survey to generate four primary sets of assessment products to be as LISI management tool: Interoperability Profiles, Interoperability Assessment Matrices, Interoperability Comparison Tables, and Interoperability System Interface Description. A principal finding of this research is that LISI has potential to improve DOD C4I systems' interoperability but the current LISI tool has to be refined. Also, LISI must continue to evolve and adopt the dynamic nature of military operations, system acquisition, and technology improvements so LISI can be useful in contributing to the improvement of DOD C4I systemsgas interoperability and to achieve the Information Superiority envisioned by Joint Vision 2010.