NO MYSTERIES, PLEASE


said. Length is less important than scope and relevance.


He advised acquisition professionals to


“ensure that their justifications are well- thought-out, well-timed and consistent year to year. A justification needs to be a stand-alone product” that a Hill staffer can look at, understand without need- ing to refer to other documents, compare to previous years’ justifications and see


“transparency and consistency,” Miller said. Te question acquisition profession- als should ask themselves, as they explain why they need the money they’re request- ing, is, “Am I telling Congress the same story I told last year and, if not, am I tell- ing them why?


“Te staff that are going to review this are really looking at, is the Army doing what they said they were going to do? Has something changed from what they said they were going to do?” Miller said. “And is what they’re doing the most responsible and effective way to do it, as opposed to just going out and burning cash, throw- ing good money after bad?”


sent to the Hill to do a little horse- trading or explaining.


“Sometimes a general will be ”


For Passero’s part, “Te one thing that I would want the Army Acquisition Work- force as a whole to understand is that they do send out valid requirements, but not all those requirements can be resourced.” When they’re crafting their justifica- tion for what they want, “it’s a writing contest—what you say influences senior leaders. So if you can craft your story better than other people, you’re probably going to get funded, right?”


“One, you want to make sure the opera- tional need is there. … We, at ASA(ALT), don’t make up the requirements. Te oper- ational need is supposed to be given to us from the G-3 and G-8. And so you just want to make sure that when you’re


writing your justification, you’re thinking in line with the operational need.”


To which Lt. Col. Raymond Yu, a fellow financial synchronization officer, added that, in addition to covering what the operational need, “We, as the materiel developers, [need to] explain how what we are pursuing gets after that opera- tional need in the most timely, effective and resource-responsible methods.”


Tere’s also the need to maximize the Army’s buying power, said Maj. Scott M. Davis, also a financial synchroni- zation officer with DASA PPR. “The ability to prioritize and trade to protect that [budgeted money] is key, especially


JUSTIFICATION BOOKS


A compilation of procurement and research and development forms known as “J-books” explain to Congress why a program needs the money that a PEO and ASA(ALT) are asking for. (Image by Abscent84/Getty Images)


56


Army AL&T Magazine


Summer 2019


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