AN EXERCISE TO EXPERIENCE
Te exercise simulation is driven by defense acquisition data. Actual programs provide a vast amount of data from which to derive the environment. Tey also allow us to compare simulation performance with a program’s actual performance and outcome.
CONCLUSION Acquisition program management is a series of decisions connected in something that will one day become a fielded weapon system. Tose decisions are not made in a vacuum, nor are they driven exclusively by the project manager. In fact, PMs lean heavily on their leadership teams to help make these decisions. Tis proposed Army acquisition exercise provides an evolutionary mechanism to build on the excellent education and training available to the Army.
U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Army Futures Command have been briefed on this concept and have expressed interest in learning more about the approach and how it could help their commands.
For more information, contact the author at
ckpickar@nps.edu.
DR. CHARLES K. PICKAR is a senior lecturer with the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California, teaching project management and acquisition. He also teaches systems engineering in the Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He has more than 30 years of management and research experience, and has served in both the government and the private sector. He has taught strategy, systems engineering and program management at various colleges and universities throughout Europe and the United States, including the Bundesakademie fuer Wehrverwaltung und Technik (German Acquisition University) in Mainz, Germany. Before coming to NPS, he was the program director for the Applied Systems Engineering Program Area at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He was also a vice president at Science Applications International Corp., where he managed several key developmental programs, including armor systems and optionally piloted vehicles, and vice president at Lockheed Martin Corp. He is a retired Army artillery officer, having served over 25 years in operational and leadership positions. He has a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Nova Southeastern University, an M.S. in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins, an M.A. in national security affairs from NPS and a B.A. in business from the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies.
HOW IT WORKS
It’s about 0630 on a Tuesday. People who will be over- seeing this week’s simulation exercise have arrived. The exercise director quickly reviews the master events list with the assembled group of acquisition experts. The senior mentor briefs the group on the training objectives. A short time later, the exercise attendees start arriving.
This isn’t happening at a tactical simulation center, but in a building at the participants’ home station. There are also virtual attendees dialing in as necessary. This rotation’s PM and her key leadership team of acquisi- tion specialists are getting ready to participate in an intense and sometimes stressful simulation to hone their acquisition skills.
In the main conference room, the exercise director and senior mentor welcome the PM and staff and meet the exercise team. Then the participants head to their designated spaces—four computer-equipped confer- ence rooms—for the two-day exercise. The PM and her team have prepared for today’s event over the past month through briefings and discussions with the organi- zation conducting the exercise. They have heard about these exercises and are looking forward to a meaning- ful learning experience. The list of scenarios derives from acquisition “big data.” The exercise itself, however, is free play, meaning the direction that it takes will be driven by the decisions the PM makes with her leader- ship team. (See Figure 3, Page 119.)
Participants will encounter the full spectrum of issues that would require them to make decisions in the day- to-day management of an acquisition program. (See
“A full slate of challenges,” Page 122.) The exercise will provide feedback on the participants’ decisions in accelerated time, with one day in the exercise roughly representing two to three years of program operation. (It’s important to note that this is not a rigid formula. The exercise director can extend or compress events, and the participants’ responses to simulated events during the exercise also affect the pace at which time unfolds.) Overall, feedback regarding a decision on a require- ments change that normally would reach the PM team over weeks or months will happen quickly, at times within minutes.
Here’s how the exercise unfolds: 120
Army AL&T Magazine
Fall 2019
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