FROM CONCEPT TO DELIVERY
the HQDA and joint staffs. He holds an M.S. in management with a concentra- tion in quantitative analysis from the Florida Institute of Technology, an M.S. in national security and strategic stud- ies from the National War College, and a B.A. in economics from the Virginia Military Institute. He is a graduate of the Field Artillery Officer Basic and Advanced courses, the U.S. Army Com- mand and General Staff College and the Operations Research Systems Analysis Military Applications Course.
We spoke with Wins during a June 5 interview that included the themes of discipline, collaboration and “the art of the possible.” Wins outlined the best way for the acquisition community to under- stand and execute the requirements that ARCIC articulates, and the mechanisms that ARCIC uses to support the acqui- sition community in interpreting them. One component of that is rehearsal of
concept (ROC) drills—bringing
together ARCIC, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology (ASA(ALT)) and the G-8 and G-3 staffs at HQDA for a complete review of failed and successful programs to determine what mistakes were made,
where they occurred and the role that policies and procedures played.
Wins also discussed the differences in developing requirements for materiel versus those for services and training, and the importance of involving the acquisition workforce in the require- ments process, “to ensure that we have some of [the acquisition community’s] best and brightest come and spend a little time on the operational side.” Tus each side can learn from the other, and both can better understand how a deci- sion made early in the requirements process affects the acquisition commu- nity later.
Wins noted the importance of ensuring continued modernization despite declin- ing funds. He emphasized the need to be efficient and disciplined, saying that the Army has to figure out what it wants and how to deliver it, “because we can’t get everything.”
Army AL&T: Tanks for talking with us. A requirements-themed issue of Army AL&T magazine without ARCIC would be all uniform and no Soldier.
Wins: I appreciate the opportunity just to have a dialogue and talk to you all, and do what I can to answer some of your questions, to try to enlighten not only myself but perhaps some readers down the road. You know, having done this job over the last two years, it really has been an eye-opening and learning experience for me, particularly coming from the side of the Army that I was on previously, which has the responsibility to resource our requirements. So with that, I appre- ciate the opportunity. Hopefully, I can shed some light on some things based on what I’ve learned here over the last couple of years. And hopefully I can give you some answers that will be suitable.
Army AL&T: How can we, as the acqui- sition community, do the best job to understand and execute the requirements that the ARCIC articulates?
Wins: On all sides of the coin, we under- stand that everything starts with the requirement. Tat, then, leads to a dis- cussion about how we resource it and then, of
course, with the acquisition
community doing the work that they need to deliver a material solution. It’s about delivery of systems—often mate- rial delivery of a system. And in that kind of triad, there are other folks integral in our ability to deliver capability as well— the test community, for example.
In this day and age, when we know that the level of resourcing we received over the last 12 years—particularly the resourcing we received for combat operations—is being reduced so significantly, we’ve got to set ourselves up to ensure that continued modernization occurs for the force, and we’ve got to do it smartly and we’ve got to be efficient with it.
Tat type of work, building a capability from a requirement, probably only gets done best in a collaborative fashion. And so on our side, we’ve been trying to do some things to try to improve the require- ment side of the process, and we have to work to continue to discipline ourselves on our requirements. We develop our requirements coming from learned expe- rience from the operational community; also, from having dialogue and discussion with the
acquisition community—the 14
Army AL&T Magazine
July-September 2015
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156
