In this initial article, I provide an overview of my ‘version’ of SSOA. I summarize a couple of perspectives and then highlight the technical underpinnings.  I close by summarizing and supplying a projected roadmap for this column.  As a point of order, my background is with the U.S. Navy; therefore, my perspective tends toward military/government settings. However, as I will indicate in a subsequent article, at their core all organizations strive to be the best at the same process: decision making.