Welcome to the Requirements Document Wizard (RDW)!

You are working on a Software Initial Capabilities Document (SW-ICD) relevant to the 2021 version of the Joint Capabilities Development and Integration System (JCIDS) Manual.

Use of the SW-ICD is appropriate ONLY IF t he capability proposed is SOFTWARE ONLY—not hardware development efforts or capturing capability requirements that span a broad scope of hardware, software, and/or DOTmLPF-P efforts.

*Note: A SW-ICD is most appropriate for software that has Joint equities. If your software solution is Service-specific, you may still use a SW-ICD, but may also consider using a Capability Needs Statement (CNS) as defined in Acquisition Policy (DoDI 5000.87).

SW-ICDs may ALSO be used to document embedded software requirements for a capability solution developed under other validated JCIDS documents. (In this case, the software requirements were validated as part of the overall capability solution, and do not require further staffing.)

SW-ICDs SHOULD NOT be used to document DBS capability requirements.

Remember, there is no SW-CDD—if you use the Software Acquisition Pathway, you will use the various tools and methodologies within your specific development process (e.g. Agile, DevSecOps, etc.) to derive, document, validate, and prioritize your refined software requirements.

*Note: Different than BOTH the ICD and IS-ICD, the SW-ICD does not require an Executive Summary.

A well-written Initial Capabilities Document (SW-ICD) identifies the key findings of your Capabilities-Based Assessment (CBA) or other study, experiment, war game, technology demonstration, etc. These findings can have a huge impact on the costs of whatever potential solutions your team recommends.

• Awareness of these findings helps the Department of Defense (DoD) focus its Science and Technology (S&T) and other risk reduction efforts geared to reducing the resources needed to satisfy joint military capability requirements.

• They also inform lifecycle cost, schedule, performance, and quantity tradeoff discussions during the Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) and subsequent requirements and acquisition decision-making.

• The SW-ICD should complement any relevant DOTmLPF-P Change Recommendations (DCRs) that exist as partially or wholly mitigating capability gaps which are nested within the scope of this SW-ICD's broader capability.

• Lastly, these findings also impact later discussions of any non-materiel (DOTmLPF-P) changes needed to successfully field materiel solutions originating as a result of this SW-ICD.

Gather the following documents for your basic ICD reference library:

• Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA) Report (if available).

• Other study results (if available).

• Check with your Service/Agency gatekeeper for any artifacts or reports you should leverage

• A review of KM/DS might also be helpful. If needed, contact the JS/J8 gatekeeper for assistance with a data pull from KM/DS historical studies repository.

• Lastly, look at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for any information that Congress may have on your capability.

• Current Concepts of Operations (CONOPs) or Concepts of Employment (CONEMP) and Threat Assessment (while the CONOPs/CONEMPs and threat assessment supporting your CBA or other study may be sufficient, confirm their currency).

• Command guidance or approval to proceed with your SW-ICD.

• JCIDS Manual. (The manual in its entirety is available through the Show Help" section and the portions relevant to the sections you'll be writing are available by clicking on the blue "J" buttons throughout this Wizard.)

• Handbooks/guidebooks or other instructions from your department or agency on how to develop a SW-ICD.

General guidance on using the RDW includes:

• The sections and sub-sections in the RDW are laid out sequentially according to the elements that the JCIDS Manual requires within your document.

• Most are MANDATORY and will show an error in RED FONT if you do not address them.

• If you don’t believe a mandatory element is applicable to your document, simply enter, “XXX is not applicable because….,” or similar verbiage.

• If you choose to address a mandatory required element within another sub-section (perhaps in conjunction with another element), you may skip over (leave blank) these mandatory sections, just bypass the error messaging. Just make sure you address each requirement somewhere in the relevant section.

• Some sub-sections are marked “Optional.” These can be skipped (left blank) without showing an error. HOWEVER, if the element is applicable to your document, ensure to address it SOMEWHERE in your document.

• You are able to use rich text (e.g. bold, italicize, underline, red or black font, etc.) within many of the writing sections (not all). Some are constrained due to the requirements in the JCIDS Manual.

• If you choose to cut and paste text from another source, make sure you convert it to the font you are using throughout the document. According to the JCIDS Manual, for the body of the document you have two choices: 1. Times New Roman, Regular, and size 12, or; 2. Bookman Old Style, Regular, and size 12. These are the only fonts (and sizes) allowed by the JCIDS Manual for the body of the document.

• The default font used in the document body sections of the RDW is Times New Roman, Regular, size 12

• For content within tables, please ensure the font is consistent and either Arial or Calibri, size 10, per the JCIDS Manual.

• The default font used in the tables within the RDW is Arial, size 10.

• Please refer to the "RDW post-export to MS Word Actions" section of the Desk Reference, available through the website (https://content1.dau.edu/rdw) for additional formatting required to be performed once you've exported your RDW Document to MS Word.