$ BBP 3.0 SPOTLIGHT: MS. SHEILA KNOTT Looking forward, with an eye on the bottom line MS. SHEILA KNOTT


COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Joint Air-to-Ground Missile Product Office, Joint Attack Munition Systems Project Office, Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space


TITLE:


Operations research analyst, series 1515


DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS:


Level III in business – cost estimating, business – financial management and program management


YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 11 EDUCATION:


B.S. in mathematics, University of Montevallo


AWARDS: Superior Civilian Service Award S


heila Knott, a native Alabamian who’s spent her career at Red- stone Arsenal, says that, as a numbers person, she’s a rule-follower by nature. “As a coster, my personality is: ‘Tere’s a right answer, and a right way.’ I think a lot of people driven into doing numbers


tend to be like that.” She once aspired to teach high school math but had a change of heart after student teaching, and took an internship that led to a job with the defense engineering division of a Huntsville, Alabama, manufacturing company.


Now she uses her background in math to estimate the true, full cost of programs and systems—from development through sustainment. As a pro- gram progresses from concept to product, cost estimators (“costers”) have to defend their estimates. In August 2015, Knott won the Superior Civil- ian Service Award for her work supporting the Milestone B decision for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, which included a defense of her team’s estimate in the pre-milestone working group.


What do you do, and why is it important to the Army or the warfighter?


I serve as an operations research analyst and adviser in the area of cost analysis, estimating and evaluation, and system analysis, for tasks relat- ing to the development, acquisition, deployment and operation throughout the entire life cycle of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, a product under the Joint Attack Munition Systems (JAMS) Project Office. Te ultimate product of my work is a life-cycle cost estimate, which provides the cost of developing, procuring, fielding, supporting and sustaining missiles in sup- port of the warfighter. Tis allows decision-makers to compare the costs of different systems and decide which provide the best benefit to the Soldier.


102 Army AL&T Magazine April-June 2016


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