ARMY DATA: FROM THE FOXHOLE TO THE PENTAGON
unstructured, semi-structured, what type of data source it’s coming from and what type of connection is required to absorb that information.” (See Figure 2, Page 20.)
Finding that data is just the first step. Te dashboard team then makes contact with the data’s owners to identify which pieces are relevant and needed for senior leaders. At first, the team set out to capture any and all data from those identified sources. Over time, it developed a more targeted approach, seeking only data that is orig- inal and authoritative from each source.
“What we’re looking to do is methodically and deliberately go through one domain at a time,” said Col. Jette. (A domain might be “people,” “training,” or “equip- ment.”) “We’re having the leaders from each domain identify the priority systems that are their ‘center of mass.’ Tere are, in some cases, scores of data systems within a particular domain, and we simply don’t have time to cover all of them, so we’re
asking the domains to identify the top 10 or so. We discuss those, how they relate to each other, how they provide original information to the Army.”
That original information is key. For example, the Army Leader Dashboard will need to pull data from the Logis- tics Modernization Program (LMP), also at PEO EIS. LMP alone has some 40 terabytes of data—more than 17 billion single-spaced, typed pages. However, of those 40 terabytes, only a fraction is orig- inal and authoritative information, so the challenge is to identify which pieces to pull and which to disregard.
WHICH DATA IS THE BEST? The team focused on the concept of
“cornerstone data”—that is, the Army’s uniquely identifiable things. “We’ve iden- tified the need for at least four categories: people, units, major equipment and places, at the site level,” Col. Jette said. “I’m an individual; I can always be identified by
my Social Security number. A unit will have a unit identification code, a piece of major equipment will have a 16-digit item unique identifier [UID], and places will have a site UID or a particular building will have a real property UID.”
Te dashboard team then builds on that cornerstone data, linking the many thou- sands of secondary attributes associated with those uniquely identifiable things. If a commander wanted to locate all active-duty sergeants stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, who have Chinese language proficiency and advanced cybersecurity certifications, the dashboard would enable that search.
Part of the challenge, though, is decid- ing which is the primary, trusted source for a given dataset. For instance, human resources data is sprinkled across nearly every system the Army operates. A Soldier’s name, date of birth, Social Secu- rity number or other relevant details
MORE THAN THE USUAL DASHBOARD
According to the Army Data Strategy, data should be visible, accessible, understandable, trusted and interoperable. Lt. Col. Rob Wolfe, Strategic Initia- tives Group director at PEO EIS and the lead for the dashboard project, said the dashboard team has been driving the kinds of conversations that will help achieve that goal.
“What we’re seeing is a change in the way the Army governs and manages data,” Wolfe explained. “These problems are driving change—hopefully, enduring change—so that we can maintain consistent, quality data. Between the Office of Business Transformation, which is responsible for architecture, the Army Analyt- ics Board, which is responsible for how we integrate and analyze data, and the Army Data Council, which is responsible for standards, we are seeing those bodies getting into the same room and having conver- sations that the Army hasn’t had before.
“It’s more than just a dashboard,” Wolfe continued.
“It’s the first thing we’ve seen that allows leaders at all echelons of command to look across domains. There are a lot of systems that allow you to look at people, to look at equipment, to look at training, but there are not any systems that allow you to look across all those areas and see how resourcing decisions in training affect people, or vice versa. We’re really trying to give leaders a tool to make strategic resource deci- sions and understand the impacts across the Army.” His goal is to enable “insight-driven” decisions.
For the dashboard team, readiness is the bottom line.
“What previously could take multiple weeks is now being done in real time,” said Rajat Senjalia, techni- cal director for the Strategic Initiatives Group. “When senior leaders can utilize one tool that can aggregate the necessary information, it enables you to make an executive-level decision on anything from troop movement to resource allocation. That is invaluable to the Army.”
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