FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITION CAREER MANAGEMENT
RONALD R. RICHARDSON JR.

 

TRANSFORMING THE FORCE

The Army Digital Transformation Strategy requires the Army to build a foundation for change. This includes addressing people and culture to increase data literacy and embrace data for decision-making. As our systems have become more data-centric, our need for specialists such as data scientists and engineers has grown. But we also need program managers, contracting officers and testers—really all of the acquisition functional areas—to embrace and master the change and advantage that the digital evolution affords. Experimentation and testing are central to this transformation.

Last year—2023—was the year of digital transformation. And what a year it was. I’d like to share some of our accomplishments:

• In March 2023, my office rolled out a curated learning pathway within Udemy to ensure a baseline level of digital proficiency. Since then, approximately 10,000 Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) professionals are actively enrolled in courses.
• More than 300 senior Army acquisition leaders attended the Data Driven Leadership Course offered by Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy in fiscal year 2023. The course, which covers topics such as data management, data science, decision making, emerging technology, change management, data privacy and security, is designed to assist our leaders in the development of a robust enterprise data management and data science capability to improve decision-making to better support the mission of the U.S. Army.
• Our partners at Defense Acquisition University (DAU) continue to build out their list of Credentials, many of which focus on digital transformation such as software development, DevSecOps, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
• We partnered with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command to launch an Army Digital Engineering Pilot under the DOD Public Private Talent Experience for fiscal year 2024. Companies that have a digital focus were solicited to participate, as were Army civilians who work in the digital engineering field. We were able to match four Army civilians with four companies. These civilians will be placed with the companies over a six-month period to gain exposure to digital engineering within an industry environment, as well as garner best business practices.

But 2023 was just the beginning.

FUNCTIONAL AREA SPECIFICS

We can’t and won’t stop at the basics. The foundations we learned in 2023 give us a level of proficiency and a common language with which we can cross-communicate. But as our line of work is complex and each situation we face is nuanced, we must now use that language and baseline understanding to discuss within and among our acquisition functional areas how to apply digital transformation principles into everything we do, from Program Management to Contracting to Test and Evaluation and the other functional areas.

We’re supporting the workforce in this effort by using our stakeholder network, specifically the Army acquisition functional leaders (AAFLs) and Army acquisition functional advisors (AAFAs). AAFLs and AAFAs serve as experts within a designated functional area and advise me and my office in shaping and developing the AAW within that functional area.

Each AAFL provides guidance on continuous learning, whether it’s courses or credentials, specific to their acquisition functional area workforce. Recently, the AAFLs incorporated digital transformation training into that guidance.

For example, the Contracting functional area AAFL, Megan Dake, who also serves as deputy assistant secretary of the Army for procurement, recommends that members of the Contracting workforce focus 20% of the required 80 continuous learning points (CLPs) on data analytics and literacy and agile acquisition, and lists specific Udemy and DAU courses that can be completed toward this goal.

James Cooke, AAFL for the Test and Evaluation functional area, recommends that Test and Evaluation workforce members focus 25% of their required CLPs in emerging technologies like big data and machine learning, as well as such areas as data science and cybersecurity.

I strongly advise every member of our AAW to review your relevant AAFL continuous learning memorandum, available in the DACM Policy Library, especially as we move into this new two-year CLP cycle beginning Oct. 1, 2024. Enter the appropriate functional area in the search bar on the right.

 MOREin’24

You’ve heard me and other acquisition leaders talk about upskilling, which is continuous learning to attain more relevant and advanced skills through additional education that expands abilities and minimizes skill gaps.

‘Continuous’ being the key word.

Offerings in 2023 provided that digital transformation baseline; in 2024 we are accelerating the learning pathway with more curated courses that will arm you with essential skills needed to thrive—not just survive—in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape.

In March I announced our MOREin’24 campaign, which adds three new courses to the digital transformation pathway in Udemy. We also launched our first-ever Army-specific Digital Foundations credential for those who complete the original three digital foundation courses within Udemy. The credential comes with 18 CLPs and an official certificate issued by me, the Army Director of Acquisition Career Management.

You can read more about the MOREin’24 campaign in this issue’s article titled “Serving the Digital Entrée.”

CONCLUSION

Our extremely talented AAW knows how to get things done and get them done right. It’s my mission to enable each of you in our workforce to persevere and succeed. I will ensure you have access to basic levels of knowledge and critical thinking capabilities to help you be more predictive and ultimately accelerate delivery of capability to the warfighter. I will continue to work with the AAFLs and AAFAs to functionally align our programs so that you are better able to adapt and operate in this emerging environment. We will use any and all tools available to us to deliver timely and relevant information. We will continue to engage directly with you—our workforce—to gauge digital competency growth and identify gaps. It is our workforce that is at ground zero of our Army’s digital transformation efforts. I’m looking forward to continuing this odyssey together.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2024 edition of AL&T News magazine. Read more AL&T News at https://asc.army.mil/armyalt/Summer2024/html/index.html.

 

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AWARDS

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The 11th annual Major General Harold J. “Harry” Greene Awards for Acquisition Writing competition is underway! The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) is sponsoring the 2024 Major General Harold J. “Harry” Greene Awards for Acquisition Writing to encourage critical writing focused on Army acquisition challenges and successful efforts to overcome them. Maximum participation is encouraged, especially among members of the Department of Defense acquisition workforce, although the competition is open to everyone.

As the U.S. Army acquisition community prepares for the future, our focus is on acquisition reform to speed capabilities to our warfighters, innovation to ensure they maintain a decisive technological advantage, and lessons learned from Soldier touch points, operational assessments and prior conflicts. Joint warfighters depend on us to get the right equipment into their hands at the right time to deter conflict or, failing that, prevail in war. It is important that we think critically and write persuasively about meeting and overcoming challenges in delivering capabilities to our men and women in uniform. Submissions are due by midnight on Sept. 30.

Details, including POC, eligibility and other rules are at: https://www.army.mil/article/277678/annual_acquisition_writing_competition_drives_dialogue_showcases_workforce_creativity.

 

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CAREER NAVIGATOR

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SERVING THE DIGITAL ENTRÉE

By Jacqueline M. Hames

 Last fall, the Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) was introduced to the digital foundations pathway with Udemy—three online courses designed to digitally upskill workforce members in preparation for the digital transformation of the Army. (See “Serving the Digital Soup” in the Fall 2023 issue of Army AL&T.) The Army Director of Acquisition Career Management (DACM) Office spent the last few months improving that pathway. Those three online courses have become a new Digital Foundations credential, which can be accessed through Udemy—and the DACM Office is launching this first-of-its-kind credential with its MOREin’24 campaign.

The campaign signals the DACM Office’s continuous commitment to upskilling and digital prowess as the Army prepares to excel in the digital age. Ashley Kestner, communications analyst in the DACM Office, explained that the campaign not only wants to educate the workforce about the availability of the new courses, but also how the workforce can continue to evolve in the overall transformation mindset.

“It all just comes down to fostering that digital-first culture and that, of course, starts with people,” Kestner said.

The campaign promotes the new credential, three additional digital upskilling courses debuting in 2024, and educates new acquisition-coded employees about the fiscal year 2024 mandatory objective for the Udemy Digital Foundations learning pathway.

THE DIGITAL MAIN COURSE

Young Bang, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology (ASA(ALT)), is spearheading the digital transformation mindset for Army acquisition. He initiated the search for a training solution to help upskill the workforce last year and found Udemy.

The MOREin’24 campaign nests under ASA(ALT)’s “accelerate mindset,” Kestner explained. “People are at the center of the Army’s modernization effort. By investing in acquisition workforce upskilling, we also grow our ability to have advantage over our adversaries,” Kestner said. “Getting into that accelerate mindset, we gave you the foundations. But how do we take this a step further to the overall digital transformation of the Army? One area garnering a lot of focus of late is responsible integration of artificial intelligence [AI]. Specifically, how can we responsibly use AI to empower our Soldiers with decision advantage—leveraging data quickly and effectively to build scalable and trusted AI capabilities that can be leveraged across programs.”

The AAW is a big part of the Army’s digital transformation, and “it’s imperative that the workforce understand the AI landscape as part of our continuous learning and digital upskilling effort,” Kestner said.

All new acquisition-coded personnel assigned to ASA(ALT), the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center and the program executive offices are required to take the first three prioritized courses in the Digital Foundations learning pathway: the Digital Transformation Masterclass, Agile Samurai Bootcamp and Product Management in AI and Data Science. The Digital Foundations credential is comprised of those required courses—and is the first of four campaign pillars. The credential was officially launched in March 2024 and signifies a mastery of digital transformation.

The other three pillars of the campaign are the newly recommended Udemy courses for fiscal year 2024 in the Digital Foundations learning pathway:

• Design Thinking: The Fundamentals (1.5 hours).
• Executive Briefing: Data Science and Machine Learning (2 hours).
• Introduction to the Cloud (2 hours).

The new credential is the guiding credential for Army digital transformation, Kestner said. It will allow workforce members to earn a total of 18 continuous learning points (CLPs)—14 for the foundational courses and four more for the credential. If you’ve completed the courses in fiscal year 2023, your Digital Foundations credential and additional four CLPs will retroactively and automatically populate in the Certification Management System (CMS). An official certificate issued by the DACM Office is yours to download through the CMS tab in CAPPMIS.

MORE ON THE SIDE

While the Digital Foundations credential is open to all acquisition-coded employees, another course exists to target leaders. The DACM Office has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to offer courses to higher-level officers and senior executives as part of the digital foundations pathway, in response to a fiscal year 2023 congressional mandate for the services to focus on developing a greater awareness of AI.

In response to that mandate, the DACM Office coordinated an in-person, weeklong Data Driven Leadership course for senior civilian and military leaders at Carnegie Mellon University, said Susan Clark, DACM development branch chief. “The course enables progress toward meeting our collective digital transformation goals,” she said.

According to the program overview, the course will provide AAW members with a certificate in Data Driven Leadership, covering six key areas: Data management, data science, decision making, emerging technology, change management, and data privacy and security. The certificate is a 10-module course where students will participate in group exercises to share experiences and discuss how they would apply what they learned during the course to benefit their career and the current work environment.

Ultimately, course graduates will be able to assist Army leadership in the development of a robust enterprise data management and data science capability to improve decision-making.

“The course is very popular and receives excellent feedback from attendees—all of our classes for fiscal year 2024 are full, with waitlists,” Clark said.

CONCLUSION

The MOREin’24 campaign also hopes to expand its AI upskilling options during the summer of 2024 and will include the Defense Acquisition University’s AI Foundations for the DOD credential in its offerings. This course will help acquisition professionals better understand AI projects. According to the course description, “students will receive a grounding in the topics of AI definitions and technologies, the AI ecosystem and the importance of data and algorithmic ethics.” Check the DACM Office’s Digital Transformation landing page for updated information later this summer.

The Digital Foundations learning pathway helps the workforce be agile, ready to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape; versatile, mastering skills crucial for modern warfare; resilient, thriving in an environment of constant innovation and evolution; and will position workforce members as leaders in the digital revolution.

“It’s an imperative that we keep pace with their [AAW members] learning, so that we can keep pace with technology, which keeps the Soldier in the field safe and gives them the tools they need to defeat our adversaries and ultimately defend the nation,” Kestner said.

For more information, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/digital-transformation/#training.

 

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

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NEW HIRES – ONBOARDING COURSE NOW AVAILABLE IN ATIS

Have you recently joined the Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW)? If so, a new self-paced online course titled “Welcome to the Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW)” is your first step in understanding what the AAW is, what your requirements as an AAW professional are, guidance on managing your acquisition career and a peek at the exclusive opportunities available to you. This course should be completed within the first few months of joining the acquisition workforce as it offers a dynamic overview of:

• The Army Acquisition Workforce.
• Training and certification standards.
• Tools and resources.
• Career models.
• Development and leadership opportunities.
• Staying connected.

To access and begin taking the course, navigate to the Army Training Information System (ATIS) Learning home page at https://learn.atis.army.mil/moodle.

• Chrome or Edge browsers are recommended.
• Go to https://learn.atis.army.mil/moodle.
• Login to EAMS-A-Single Sign-On (CAC login).
• Click the CATALOG tab.
• Locate the Welcome to the Army Acquisition Workforce course in the list of Published courses, or enter the course name in the Search field, and click the search icon.
• Select the Register & Launch button, which will take you directly where you can launch the Learning Assignment(s) required for the course.
• There is a downloadable resources guide included with the course. You are highly encouraged to download and save a copy of this guide for your records.
• Once you have closed the course topic, your completion will show up on your ATIS LEARNING MY CERTIFICATES page.
• Click the certificate File icon to view and download the course certificate of completion.

EMERGING ACQUISITION LEADERS COMPLETE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM!

Congratulations to the Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) members who completed the Defense Civilian Emerging Leader Program (DCELP) this past May. DCELP is the premier DOD leader development program for civilians in grades GS-07 through GS-12 (and broadband equivalent).

AAW DCELP graduates for FY24:

• Mary Falcigno, Army Futures Command
• Archie Kinnebrew, Army Test and Evaluation Command

DCELP consists of four one-week resident seminars during which the participants engage in reflection exercises, leadership assessments, mentoring, coaching, team and individual presentations, and networking opportunities. Emerging leaders are immersed in a variety of experiential activities that promote self-awareness, enhance communication skills, demonstrate team-building strategies and strengthen overall leadership capabilities.

DCELP is part of the collection of programs called Enterprise Civilian Talent Development Programs. If YOU are an emerging leader or if you KNOW an emerging leader who would benefit from attending DCELP, visit this website: https://asc.army.mil/web/career-development/programs/setm-etm/ and find out how to apply!

ARMY ACQUISITION PRODUCT DIRECTOR CENTRALIZED SELECTION BOARD RESULTS

The Army Acquisition Corps selected candidates for the Fiscal Year 2025 Product Director Centralized Selection Boards (CSB) held June 5–9, 2023 at the Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The Product Director (PdD) concept is to centrally select high performing, high potential Army acquisition civilian program management personnel at the GS-14 or broadband equivalent level to serve in PdD positions within the program executive office (PEO) structure.

The Director, Acquisition Career Management (DACM) Office’s objective is to direct personnel assignments within the PEOs to facilitate the placement of these selected civilian personnel in PdD positions. This central management of civilian PdDs is a core tenant of the civilian talent management concept.

A talent management board of directors met May 22, 2024, to approve the position slates, for the newly selected product directors. Lt. Gen. Robert M. Collins, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the army for acquisition, logistics and technology presided over the board consisting of Rob Richardson, Jr., DACM, the 12 PEOs and Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.

The board approved three PdDs for assignment. Congratulations to the following slated principals:

FISCAL YEAR 2025 PRODUCT DIRECTORS

• Antoinette Freeland, PEO Enterprise Information Systems PdD Global Combat Support-Army.
• Gina Whitaker, PEO EIS, PdD Army Human Resource Systems.
• Tinesha Nicholas, Joint PEO Armaments & Ammunition, PdD Demilitarization (DEMIL).

The fiscal year 2026 Product Director Board will be held June 23-28, 2024, with slate release anticipated in the spring of 2025. The fiscal year 2027 Product Director announcement will open in February of 2025.

For information, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/prod-dir.

 

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SPOTLIGHT ON SUCCESS

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BRIANNA BAZILIO

Meet Brianna Bazilio, a budget program analyst for Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition (JPEO A&A). In 2021, Brianna started her career with the Army as a college intern through the DoD College Acquisition Internship Program (DCAIP). Brianna didn’t stop there; she continued leveling up her professional development in other ways, like continuous learning:

“The encouragement to continue learning throughout our time there is constant,” she said. “Through the requirement of earning continuous learning points, I am constantly learning and seeking new opportunities to further my team.”

DCAIP is an opportunity for Army acquisition organizations to hire eligible college students for a 12-week paid summer internship. Upon a student’s successful completion of the internship, the organization may noncompetitively convert the individual to a permanent position in the acquisition workforce.

DCAIP was established as a pilot in 2019 by the Office of Human Capital Initiatives (HCI) of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. The Army began its participation in the program in 2020. DCAIP is part of HCI’s talent management strategy to recruit and retain full-time students who are enrolled in institutions of higher education. The program is an effort to “build the bench” of talent with degrees that are in high demand across the acquisition community.

Read more about Brianna’s career journey in her Faces of the Force profile “Grace to Learn.”