NCES GLOSSARY
Capability - The ability to achieve a desired effect under specified standards and conditions through combinations of means and ways to perform a set of tasks. It is defined by an operational user and expressed in broad operational terms in the format of a joint or initial capabilities document or a joint doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities (DOTMLPF) change recommendation. In the case of materiel proposals/documents, the definition will progressively evolve to DOTMLPF performance attributes identified in the capability development document and the capability production document. (Source: CJCSI 3170.01F)
Community of Interest (COI) - A collaborative group of users who must exchange information in pursuit of their shared goals, interests, missions or business processes and who therefore must have shared vocabulary for the information they exchange is a COI. (Source: 9 May 2003 DCIO DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy).
Core Enterprise Services (CES) - Services that enable both service and data providers on the "net", by providing and managing the underlying capabilities to deliver content and value to end-users.
Evaluation Capability Module (ECM) - A core building block of the evolutionary development strategy within NCES.
Global Information Grid (GIG) - Globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities, associated processes, and personnel for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating and managing information on demand to warfighters, policy makers and support personnel.
Increment - A militarily useful and supportable operational capability that can be effectively developed, fielded, and sustained. An increment consists of multiple spirals, which collectively satisfy the requirements levied on the increment. Increments are complete when the last spiral is fielded and the spirals satisfy all of the capabilities assigned to the increment.
Information Assurance (IA) - Information operations that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality and non-repudiation. These operations provide restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection and reaction capabilities.
Net-Centric Information Sharing - Robust networks without central weakness versus centralized chains that can be cut or broken. Interoperable communications versus "stove-piped" communications infrastructure. Dynamic-situational security versus fixed-domain specific-security. Pull assured information versus push information out. Only handle information once versus duplicate entries.
Service - A contractually defined behavior that can be provided by a component, for use by any component, solely based on the interface contract.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) - SLA defines mutual understandings and expectations between a service consumer and a service provider. The service-level objectives that both the service consumer and the service provider agree upon usually include a set of indicators such as availability and average response time.
