MODEL 001 · DEMONSTRATOR

An institutional architecture of procurement

FichaThis describes no real process. It proposes an architecture of five actors and the path a weapons programme takes through it. Budgetary allocation is granted by the Government alone and there is no alternative path: since there are always more programmes waiting than money available, approval is an allocation round, and what the links change is the order of the queue. After the money two conditions remain, that industry delivers and that the unit accepts the platform. The state at the start of the game fixes the structure of relations between actors, how much money there is, whether the budget goes through, and the situation and characteristics of the programmes. The measure is P(Y | initial state, decisions) over a thousand realisations. There are no economic magnitudes: money is counted in allocations, not in amounts. A closed procedure, equivalent to dice and tables. Its structure is published (the actors, the four gates, the events and the responses available with their consequence); the resolution table is withheld. What it does not say: neither quantities, nor timescales, nor budgets, nor any specific national process.

MODEL 001 · User guide

01 Initial screen

A diagram of the architecture and three cards. Each card opens a different route.

SECTIONs	WHAT IT OPENS
REALISATIONPlay a game	Eight turns. The board shows where each programme is and who has to decide it.
MEASUREMeasure a situation	A thousand realisations with the same initial state and the same declared policy.
PROCEDURESee the procedure	The life of a programme, the actors and the complete rules. A reading screen, with no controls.

The diagram above is the scheme of the architecture: five actors joined by links. Money is granted by the Government alone and there is always less of it than is asked for.

← Back to the start returns to this screen from any route and discards the game in progress.

02 Configuration · common to playing and measuring

The realisation and measurement routes share the same configuration screen, organised in tabs. Adjust what you want and enter.

2.1 Programas

Each programme has three editable fields: the name, in a free text box; the starting state, in a drop-down; and the driver, the actor pushing it, also in a drop-down.

2.2 State at the start of the game

Under STATES the initial disposition of each actor is set by pressing directly on the options in each row. Under LINKS the relation between pairs of actors is set the same way: Government – Ministry, Ministry – General Staff, General Staff – Armed Forces and Government – Industry.

There is no save button: each press rewrites the anchor and the diagram is redrawn.

2.3 The declared policy

Two decisions, each with its own options.

Response doctrine. Accommodating accepts what comes. Resistant opposes even at a cost. Technical prefers to redefine and redirect when the link allows it.

If the system becomes overloaded. The lowest priority gives way, or the highest gives way.

Start game enters the first turn. On the measurement route, the equivalent button launches the thousand realisations.

03 Realisation route · playing the game

Eight turns. In each one the system raises one or more matters and the user responds by choosing one option per matter.

3.1 The turn

1The board shows which step each programme is at and which actor has to decide it. Under STEPS the complete route can be followed.

2The matters of the turn appear, each with its options. One option is pressed per matter. Options that require a condition of the anchor appear marked with requires and the requirement; if it is not met, they cannot be chosen.

3With the matters resolved, the turn closes and the board is redrawn with the changes. The Close of turn block summarises what happened; if nothing moved, it says so: no programme changes step this turn.

3.2 Two incidents that interrupt the turn

The system does not sustain that many case files. There are more programmes in process than capacity. One is chosen to be deferred for two rounds.

Which one comes through whole?. One programme is chosen; the others take the friction.

3.3 Close of the game

After eight turns it shows how many programmes entered service and where each one stopped, with its final step and any marks it carries, such as restricted use.

Three exits: Play again, Download log, which saves the complete trace of the game to a file, and Measure this anchor, which leads to the measurement route with the same configuration.

IF THE ROUND IS INTERRUPTED

On an error, the demonstrator shows the notice «The round has been interrupted» with two buttons: «Try to continue», which resumes from where it was, and «Start again», which discards the game. Continuing may leave the game in an incoherent state.

04 Measurement route · a thousand realisations

Same configuration as the realisation route. The card button launches a thousand realisations over the same initial state and the same declared policy. The result is headed P(Y | anchor, decisions).

It returns three blocks.

1 · The anchored architecture: the initial state that was measured, so that it is on record with which anchor the result was obtained.

2 · How many programmes enter service: histogram of the distribution over the thousand realisations. Not a number, a distribution.

Where the programmes stop: at which step each programme is left and with what frequency.

WHAT IT DOES NOT RETURN

The measure does not say which of the programmes prevails. The structure admits several outcomes because the situation it represents admits them: repeating the measure does not narrow that result.

05 Procedure route

It shows in text the life of a programme step by step, the actors and the complete rules. There are no controls. It is left with ← Back to the start.