Everyone who tires of the latest trending buzzword salad might reflect before acting on the most recent ‘paradigm shifting transformational’ strategy from the Pentagon. However, if they have ever wondered why the advanced technology program office has more detailed insight on a pizza ordered online than a jet engine repair, they may withhold judgement (briefly). The commercial world has known for decades that the Internet changed the way business is done in very fundamental ways, and businesses must adapt or yield to more agile, efficient competition. Government, the Federal Government in particular and most especially the Department of Defense, lives in isolation of those competitive forces. But the Digital Engineering Strategy changed that.
Few people working in acquisition would disagree that programs are taking longer and costing more to deliver capabilities. The National Defense Strategy of 2018 put procurement efficiency as a national priority. The National Defense Business Plan subsequently targeted business processes a key strategic goal. The Digital Engineering Strategy then acknowledged that DoD lags industry in digital transformation. A problem has been publicly recognized, and several goals identified to address it. Unfortunately, that strategy did not specify who should fix it, and it is not apparent to the ground-level leaders if they are expected to act, or even if they can act. Leaders need a means to decide if they can, or should, and how.
Any government office at any level is responsible for a set of processes they own, and uses or participates in many other processes they do not. You can change the processes you own. Take three examples of who might consider applying digital engineering.
First, a major defense acquisition program office. As defined in the Defense Acquisition System (DoDI 5000.02), every program office owns its acquisition process. They own their acquisition strategy, their engineering plan, their test and evaluation plan, and many more. The program office is required to present and update about 50 different plans and assessments over the course of development. Each of these plans describes a process by which the program office will maintain a data repository of some form, for example, the systems engineering plan (SEP) controls the requirements management process. The SEP is presented or updated at every milestone decision. Because the office owns the process (engineering management) that controls the data (system specification) in order to get a decision (milestone), this is a candidate for digitalization.
Second, consider a functional organization, like the source selection office. In a matrix organization the functional offices own processes that create products others need. The source selection office owns the process for competitive acquisitions, a service used by program offices to compete and award small and large contracts. They are responsible for compliance with Navy, DoD and Federal regulations regarding such competitions. Such a process is a candidate for digitalization because they own the process (source selection), that controls data (government requests for proposal and industry responses), to make a decision (contract award).
Third, examine a tenant activity, like a test squadron. While the squadron might be a tenant activity that executes primarily using resources associated with program office projects, they own the process of writing and executing test plans. That process may be generally standardized, but each squadron has unique patterns of content and method driven (jet test plans may be different from helicopter test plans). Each squadron has decision makers who approve those plans. The squadron owns the process (test planning), the data (test plans), and the decision (approval). Such a process is a candidate for digitalization.
Every office has some staff, and some budget, but both are likely at a premium. Every office resides within a larger organization – even the Office of the Secretary of Defense has limits to its authority. Every office has a supply chain of providers, perhaps of products and services, or providers of data. If your office can identify the ecosystem it resides within (the people, resources, organization, and supply chain), you may be able to digitalize.
The technical options can be overwhelming. In today’s Internet world digital solutions can be sourced globally, which is both an opportunity and a threat. However, if an office can understand the platforms it has (or can procure) that will scope the computing environment (i.e. everyone works on laptop computers running Windows, plugged into the organizational network). Industry 4.0 technology options are remarkable, but the payoff is uneven so they should be considered for impact. Everything is not better with Bluetooth. Does your office maintain its data, or rely on disparate functional services to meld their data to answer questions? If you can change the platforms you own, the technology you use, or the data you maintain, those technical options are available for you to digitalize.
Bottom line: if you own a process and its data, can characterize your ecosystem and understand your technical options, you can choose a strategy for digital engineering.
References
Department of Defense. (2015). Operation of the Defense Acquisition System. https://www.dau.edu/tools/t/DoDI-5000-02
Department of Defense. (2018a). National Defense Strategy. https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/National-Defense-Strategy
Department of Defense. (2018b). National Defense Business Operations Plan. https://cmo.defense.gov/Publications/NDBOP.aspx
Department of Defense. (2018c). Digital Engineering Strategy. https://ac.cto.mil/digital_engineering