Systemic Operational Design: Epistemological Bumpf or the Way Ahead for Operational Design?

Operational design is an intellectual exercise that draws on the creative vision, experience, intuition, and judgment of commanders to provide a framework for development of detailed operation plans. Recently, a number of authors have questioned the continued relevance of the classic elements of operational design (CEOD) approach in the contemporary operating environment (COE) suggesting that we may be facing a ‘crisis in operational design’. This monograph explores this potential crisis in operational design from a Canadian Forces (CF) perspective and examines the CF CEOD methodology with a particular focus on theoretical underpinnings. Subsequently, this paper examines an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) operational design methodology, Systemic Operational Design (SOD), and compares it to the CF CEOD methodology to determine whether it might offer useful insights for practitioners of operational design in the COE. This monograph concludes that SOD is based on theoretical underpinnings that more accurately reflect the COE and a clearer and more functional conception of operational design. Finally, this monograph recommends that the CF explore SOD with a view to adopting an operational design methodology better suited to the COE.