By Geoff Fein
As the Navy begins to incorporate a new approach to buying everything from ships to information technology, it is also looking over its acquisition workforce, determining what it needs to develop and build an acquisition corps.
Particular attention is being paid to the people involved in program management, contract management and systems engineering, Navy Secretary Donald Winter told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
“There are two elements here to be cognizant of,” he said. “One aspect has to do with training people to use a process like this, which I don’t think is that difficult, because we are used to in the military dealing with formal review structures. [It] just hasn’t be applied in this manner.”
While Winter believes training people in the new acquisition process won’t be that difficult, he acknowledged, however, there are some additional responsibilities that are accruing to the Navy that had dissipated over the last several years as the service became more reliant on contractors.
“We are going to have to rebuild some elements of this. [We are] taking a look at how do we go ahead and do that. How do we make sure that we apply our technical resources properly,” he said. “How do we make sure that our program managers are given the right developmental opportunities to be able to take on some of the additional responsibilities? What we are trying to do is lay out a complete plan of attack relative to the workforce.”
As is sometimes the case, people can be reluctant to any change. But Winter noted he hasn’t seen any resistance to adopting this new approach to acquisition.
“I would say for some people this is a bit more than they are used to having to do, and in some aspects we are asking tough questions, and that’s making people kind of shake their heads and think through things in ways perhaps in the past they have been more inclined to depend on contractors,” he said.
For example, Winter points to the Navy’s efforts to develop the follow-on to the Navy Marine Corps Internet (NMCI), called NGEN (Next Generation Enterprise Network).
“We got inputs from contractors a while ago. Now we are working it within Navy and we are not having the contractors, at least the potential bidders, involved in a lot of this, as I think we should not,” Winter said. “That’s making people work in a little different manner than perhaps they have in the past.”
But Winter’s sense is that people are intrigued by the possibilities the new process will bring. “They understand the leverage that working this through can have. I think it is becoming a good experience, and I think we will get value out of the process,” he added.
The other thing, Winter pointed out, is that in many cases these are the same people that will be involved in managing the contract once the Navy gets into the execution of the contract or contracts.
Winter believes that having gone through the process, and being forced to examine, both on their own and in group discussions, the why and wherefore of all these different issues, will help set the stage for acquisition personnel to more effectively manage the activity afterward. They are really developing an understanding of the real requirements leveraged by the operations community, he added.
“What are the alternatives, from an architectural point of view, that we are looking at. What are the trade-offs that are being examined in terms of cost versus various performance considerations, and what are the approaches that are being adopted to enhance or improve the matching…with the industrial base,” Winter said.
Going through that whole thought process makes acquisition folks knowledgeable buyers, Winter added.
“Being a knowledgeable buyer is more than just getting somebody who understands the technology, understands contracting and the like. That knowledgeable buyer has got to go through a learning process themselves to make sure they understand what’s most important for Navy, big Navy, Navy and Marine Corps, and all of the constituent components,” he said. “And that takes a little bit of learning and that’s part of what we are going through right now and again I think it will set the stage for a more effective program execution.”