ARMY AL&T
POLICY IN PRACTICE
Army Regulation 602-2, “Human Systems Integra- tion in the System Acquisition Process,” provides a comprehensive look at the branch’s approach to HSI.
“The Army’s HSI Program focuses on the inte- gration of human considerations into the system acquisition process to enhance Soldier-system design, reduce life cycle ownership costs, improve safety and survivability, and optimize total system performance. HSI accomplishes this by ensuring that the human is fully and continuously consid- ered as part of the total system in the development and/or acquisition of all systems. Human perfor- mance is a key factor in total system performance, and enhancements to human performance will contribute to enhanced total system performance and could help reduce life cycle ownership costs. It is imperative that a total HSI effort begins as early as possible in system acquisition and that user feedback is used to maximize the influence on system design.”
One reason for the shortage: Tere is no clearly defined career path or job series for HSI in the Army. “If you’re trying to hire someone with an HSI background or an HSI degree, there’s no job series you can go to.” Shattuck explained. “Te closest you get is an engineer- ing psychologist, which is not the same thing, or just a psychologist or a general engineer. None of those come with the knowledge, skills and abilities that somebody with an HSI degree has. We don’t have the ability to hire them and there’s not a career path, either in the military at the O-3 to O-6 level, or in the civilian world at GS-7/9 up to GS-15.” Creating an appropriate job series and a relevant career path would be an important step to help identify, manage and track people with HSI expertise, he said.
CONCLUSION Progress is being made. Tere are numerous examples of the growing role and recognition of HSI, UX and the entire group of related fields within the Army and DOD. Look at the training being provided by the Navy’s Centers for Adaptive Warfighting, the innovative work of the General Services Administration’s 18F office, or the creation of the Air Force Chief Experience Officer position. Tis isn’t your grandfather’s military anymore.
Future Vertical Lift helicopter system—it’s not just for the five or six years that it’s being built, but for the 30 years that program’s going to be around. Wouldn’t it make sense to invest in the HSI activities that are going to result in safety and longevity and health and force protection and training and all those kinds of things, for the overall health of the system?”
In addition to more funding, Shattuck said there is a shortage of personnel. “When it comes to acquisition professionals and engineers and logisticians and those folks, they get assigned to a program and they work on that program and it’s typically one program. But for an HSI practitioner, particularly if it’s an ACAT [acquisition cate- gory] III or ACAT II program, they may be split between three or four or more programs that they’re supposed to cover.” With such limited time and attention, Shattuck said it is even more challenging for those HSI professionals to make much of an impact on a program. “Tere are absolutely not enough HSI practitioners to go around, to be in the trenches, with all the people doing all the other acquisition and design and sharing work, preparing for milestone decisions and all that sort of stuff.”
Te Army has a long history of embracing and fostering innovation, working with industry leaders like John Karlin and Bell Labs to achieve its mission. Today, it is on the edge of another major advance- ment with the broad adoption of HSI practices, but Shattuck said it’s going to require strong leadership. “What would it look like if the senior leaders of AFC [Army Futures Command] stood up and said, ‘HSI is important to me, we will do HSI in every program, you will brief me about it every time there is a milestone decision, I want to hear and see what the status of HSI is,’ ?” he said.
When it comes to accomplishing its goals—from dominating the battlefield to supplying Soldiers with the best equipment and technol- ogy—the Army champions innovative thinking and strong leadership. It doesn’t just hope for a lucky break.
For more information about HSI policy, go to
https://ac.cto.mil/hsi/. To learn about the HSI programs at NPS, go to:
https://nps.edu/web/or.
ELLEN SUMMEY provides contract support to the U. S. Army Acquisition Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, as a writer and editor for SAIC. She holds an M.A. in human relations from the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. in mass communication from Louisiana State University. She is certified as a User Experience Manager and Project Management Professional, and has more than 15 years of professional communication experience.
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