The Department of Defense is transforming its engineering practices to incorporate digital technology and innovations into an integrated, digital, model-based approach. This instruction establishes policy, assigns responsibilities, and provides procedures for implementing and using digital engineering in the development and sustainment of systems.  Furthermore, this instruction incorporates and cancels DoD Directive 5000.59, DoD M&S Management.  Thus, there is a need to reexamine governing and collaborative best practices to allow stakeholders and decision makers to redefine roles and responsibilities to best manage and modernize M&S capabilities.

This paper provides insights on Digital Engineering Concepts and Capabilities.  The discussion highlights policy direction to program managers and key elements of the Digital Engineering Framework and the Digital Engineering Ecosystem.  Discussion topics include Digital Models, Digital Twins / Threads, and Digital Artifacts.

Finally, the paper assesses cross-community and service-centric challenges incorporating the tenets of the former DoD Directive on M&S Management. This includes examination of existing management functions and recommendations on strategy development, policy formulation and workforce development as it affects the Defense M&S enterprise.

Keywords
POLICY

Additional Keywords
Digital Transformation, Digital Engineering, Digital Models, Governance