Unified Land Operations defines the Army Operational Design Methodology (ADM) as “a methodology for applying critical thinking and creative to understand, visualize and describe unknown problems and approaches to solving them. Operational Design Methodology integrated into Army doctrine serves as a method to supplement the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). Although ADM is often confused as a replacement for MDMP, its goal is to tackle complex problems from a non-linear approach. ADM helps the commander answer questions and problems. However, only a collaborative effort by an Operations Planning Team (OPT) will achieve an approach to address complex issues. Doctrine alone does not provide answers to complex problems, but rather offers a guide to solving them. To conceptualize MDMP, planners must integrate ADM to provide better understanding, visualization, and description of the problem. The purpose of this document is to provide a framework to explain why SMA is required in the MDMP. The Army incorporated the concept of design into doctrine to emphasize the importance of developing an appreciation of complex problems and ways to solve them before proceeding with detailed planning. Holistic design understanding of unique situations is achieved through critical and creative thinking, mediated through speech and drawings. ADM offers a different approach to providing the ends, ways and means to answer the commander's question. The first part of this article will explain how understanding the problem provides the initial framework for approach. The second part will demonstrate how visualizing the problem allows the commander to conceptualize it. The third and final part explores how to understand...... middle of paper ...... Do to correct them. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1996. Headquarters, Department of the Army. Army Doctrine Reference Publication 3-0, Unified Land Operations. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2011. HQs, Department of the Army. Field Manual 3-07, Stability Operations. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2008. HQs, Department of the Army. Field Manual 5-0, The Operational Process. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2010. Lawson, Bryan. How designers think: the design process demystified. 4th ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006. SAMS Design Student Text, v. 2.0.Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art. New York: Doubleday, 2006. Slim, Viscount. Defeat towards victory. Hong Kong: Papermac, 1987. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Joint Publication 3-0 Joint Operations. Washington, DC: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2011.