Joint Concept Development and Experimentation

....... Force development activities play a major role in ensuring that the Canadian Forces evolve and adapt to meet future mission requirements. However, the various joint force development activities (capability-based planning, concept development and experimentation) are not closely integrated and frequent changes to these activities have been implemented in recent years. With the intent of guiding potential future changes, this report provides best practices on organization development based on a review of the scientific literature. An assessment of the current joint force development activities and their limitations is then performed. Finally, the paper provides recommendations with regards to Concept Development and Experimentation and how these activities can best contribute to the force development objectives. The report highlights the various aspects that should be part of a systemic force development activity. It is found that some of these aspects are currently ignored within the current capabilitybased planning approach. These aspects are also used to recommend specific human views that should be included within the Department of National Defence Architecture Framework. The report also highlights that concept development should deliver well defined and precise concepts for which all potential trade-offs have been clearly identified.