PROACTIVE TEAMWORK IMPROVES FUNDING PROCESS
Te RDT&E community needed to revise and resubmit nearly all the proposals as a result of the clarification. “Te request from ABO was to revise 180 [science and technology] proposals in five business days,” LeGrand said, looking back on the effort to get the revisions staffed. “While we did not hit that target, given the number of revisions and the complexity of the [science and tech- nology] proposals, we did submit all revised proposals within 10 business days of the revised guidance. Tis was a significant accomplishment for the community, facilitated by open lines of communication and established methods of coordination.”
“Tis innovative approach to work collaboratively across organiza- tions to meet challenges speaks of the caliber of people who work in the Army’s RDT&E community,” said Singleton. “Clearly defining their goals and exceeding them despite changing require- ments is an encouraging trend for future fiscal years.”
CONCLUSION Te team’s efforts were recognized in the Report of the House Appropriations Committee on the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, 2022. Te bill called out the effort in legislative language, stating that “the Committee was encouraged that the Army developed a system for tracking overhead costs on Congressional program increases, and believes that all of the services and DOD-wide agencies should similarly track these costs to ensure that the overwhelming amount of each Congressional program increase is used to further the intended program and not simply supplement or supplant established overhead budget.”
LeGrand was quick to point out the success of the working group would not have been possible without input from all stakehold- ers who provided assistance, guidance and insight along the way. “Every person who provided input was critical to our success,” LeGrand observed. “Tis is a great example of how collaboration can lead to positive outcomes and improved efficiency.” Despite the end of the formal fiscal year 2021 Congressional add season, the team continued to stay in contact in order to leverage their results for a successful fiscal year 2022.
“Te team discussed the need for two IPTs for [fiscal year] 2022—one focused on RDT&E as a whole, the other focused on the subset of [science and technology]. In preparation for [fiscal year] 2022, the teams have developed step-by-step instructions to accompany the proposal template, which we modified slightly based on [fiscal year] 2021 lessons learned,” LeGrand said. “Te revised template and instructions have already been accepted by ABO and disseminated to the RDT&E community so they can begin drafting their proposals based on committee marks to date.”
68 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2022
Te team also disseminated a checklist specific to science and technology to address the community’s unique requirements. Te checklist was designed to assist the entire community, acting as a reference for individuals crafting proposals, as well as AFC head- quarters and Army staff reviewers.
Additionally, ABO is developing a SharePoint site to improve tracking processes through a repository for proposals, approvals and requests for information, according to Sgt. 1st Class Sahib Singh, AFC resource management noncommissioned officer, currently detailed to the ABO.
“Te biggest takeaway from the IPT is that funding gets approved earlier than in previous years,” Singh said. “We started working together earlier, clarified key players and streamlined commu- nications.”
“Tere are three different echelons in this process and we incorpo- rated feedback from those levels to help make the request process much smoother and better,” McCraw said. “We really looked at questions like ‘Are we hitting the Congressional intent?’ Te IPT process was extremely helpful in answering that.” At the conclu- sion of the fiscal year 2022 cycle, the team hopes to report that all RDT&E Congressional add proposals have been submitted to ABO within 60 days of budget enactment. Te newly formed science and technology IPT includes participation from every science and technology executing organization.
With Congressional language commending the Army’s overhead tracking costs on Congressional adds, the team is also already looking to the future. In fiscal year 2023 the team hopes to share its Congressionally recognized tracking processes, lessons learned and best practices with the whole DOD RDT&E community.
For more information go to the ASA(ALT) website https://
www.army.mil/asaalt.
BROOKE A. DAVIS is a public affairs and media operations defense contractor for ASA(ALT). She holds a master’s in public administration from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s in telecommunications operations from the University of Florida. She has 19 years’ experience working as a public affairs specialist and is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
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