Acquisition Innovation Directorate is Here to Help Make PMs’ Jobs Easier

PEO EIS’s Acquisition Innovation Directorate (AID), formerly known as Director, Acquisition and Systems Management/Strategic Initiatives Group (DASM/SIG), recently changed its name to more clearly reflect how team members assist PEO EIS and its program managers. The team is led by Aric Sherwood, director, and consists of Monica Wilkins, executive assistant; Ron Crevecoeur, special projects; Rajat Senjalia, technical lead; Mary Harvey, acquisition program management lead; Kyle Burke, senior acquisition program analyst; Rachel Solis, program management specialist; and acquisition analysts Mike Hildebrandt, Arthur Clark, Erin Rusnak, David Reinaman and Solaiman Afzal. They were invited to speak as a team for today’s #PEOEISTeammateTuesday.

What were some difficulties you ran into with your old name that led you to make the change from DASM/SIG to AID, and what are some goals you hope to achieve with the new name?

Aric Sherwood: When the two organizations were separate, there was a DASM side and a SIG side. When they decided to merge those organizations, I thought renaming was appropriate to give us a new identity, especially as we grew the team together. The other part was when we talked to external organizations and said we were from DASM, there was confusion since DASM is also a position at ASA(ALT) headquarters. What we want to do is show that we provide value to EIS and its project managers (PMs). The word “aid” means a form of help. That we're here to help is the background for that name change.

Your directorate is made up of two focus areas: acquisition support and strategic initiatives. How do these areas complement each other, and how do they differ?

Aric Sherwood: The two organizations are very distinct in what they do. The strategic initiatives side of AID jumpstarts and restarts. When a program is assigned to EIS, we look to see how mature it is. If we're inheriting a program, we might not run it through the SIG side of the house. But if it's a new program with an office of primary responsibility (OPR), the SIG is set up to help a new PM start a program. They understand the adaptive acquisition framework pathways, and they help incubate that program and transition it to a PM. On the other side of the house, once the program is transitioned and executing, acquisition analysts help that program with its documentation, the shaping briefs at ASA(ALT), stakeholder management and all the pieces that go along with running a program. Simply put, the SIG side stands up the program while the analyst side supports the execution of the program.

Could you describe some recent successes that highlight the importance of your directorate?

Solaiman Afzel: There’s an EIS program called Army Training Information System (ATIS), which is acquiring and deploying a one-stop training solution for the Army. They wanted to utilize Agile development while being compliant with DOD 5000.75. We wrote a white paper to demonstrate how you could be compliant while doing development and acquisition in an incremental and rapid manner, using Agile methodology, and we provided white papers that other programs could use. We provide these resources to streamline processes while helping programs be compliant with DOD 5000.x and other guidance.

Arthur Clark: By working with the Army CIO directly and the staff of that agency, we're able to help programs go through the compliance certification, which is required at milestone decisions. Rather than let programs just hang out on their own and try to figure out how to engage and work with one of the major elements of the Army Headquarters staff, we can assist them in taking care of that.

Ron Crevecoeur: If you look at what we do on a daily basis, we’re staffing documents, and we're answering questions from the Pentagon, the ASA(ALT) staff or from the PM. It is really a daily activity that we do here in providing support and allowing success in automation. It's something that you can measure every day.

Mary Harvey: The SIG team has helped set up several successful programs within EIS in the past year and a half. That includes Enterprise IT as a Service (EITaaS), Global Force Information Management (GFIM), Global Combat Support System – Army (GCSS – Army) disconnected operations, and, most recently, the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) Integrated Mission Management System (AIMMS). We assist with the planning, the documentations and awards, and being the liaison between Army Contracting Command and our functional sponsors to help them develop and create the correct requirements to get awarded.

What are some ways you're making acquisition easier for PMs?

Aric Sherwood: The Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence program is standing up, and they’re trying to converge a lot of the enterprise business systems across the Army. To that end, Kyle Burke is assisting them with the Other Transaction Authority (OTA) process. His sole focus right now is to get that program on a path to success in executing under an OTA. There are some different things that they're trying where they're going to keep developing products and fielding things across that effort, while still carrying more than one vendor forward. So, they're looking at ways they can execute innovatively while giving the Army the flexibility to deliver capability to Soldiers.

What are some ways you're being innovative? How are you standing above any forms of competition?

Solaiman Afzel: We understand the DOD 5000.x guidance so well that we reduce bureaucracy and paperwork. So what does that mean? We try to minimize anything the program should write. What we do provides direct value in cutting costs and adding value to our Soldiers. We've reviewed extensive testing plans that contain extraneous information and offered feedback to simplify them, so they can be executed more easily. Same thing with acquisition strategies. We provide examples of incremental development in acquisition like Mr. Clark talked about in meeting Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) and DOD 5000.x and all these guidance requirements in an innovative way. And we believe that a lot of guidance like CCA and DOD 5000.75 could be combined. We help these programs realize that they could use the same artifacts, such as a problem statement or statement of need for multiple requirements.

Aric Sherwood: The new DOD 5000.87 also came out, so we're helping the PMs explore those possibilities and make their programs execute more quickly. Additionally, we hosted a class on the use of a simplified acquisition management plan, which a lot of PMs may not be aware is available to them. It reduces a lot of the paperwork burden on the PMs for their documentation. And a third thing that's kind of innovative is the Army has stated recently that any business system over $25 million across the Future Years Defense Program will have to follow the 5000.75, which assumes a PEO being assigned to it. As those programs start to come in, we have to find innovative ways to help those PMs execute those programs in a resource-constrained environment. And that's the ability: streamline that process and do more with less people and help develop those programs in that manner. As the OPR comes in for these new programs, we can incubate a program quickly to execute, and that's going to be a very helpful thing to the PMs.

Can you share any new or upcoming plans for future growth within AID?

Aric Sherwood: We are a lean organization, so I don't see any employee growth on this side of PEO headquarters. What I will say is that as the memorandum gets distributed that says anything over $25 million has to have a PEO assigned, we are going to see an increased workload in the PEO. That means there's going to be increased throughput through the SIG and additional burden on the analyst side of the house. We'll call uncle when we need to, but currently we're going to continue to attack this with demand for the manpower we have. But there are many requirements in the works right now for which PEO EIS will be assigned as OPR. There are some requirements coming our way, such as alternative email, which won’t have an official requirement document, and we will be required to execute that. So again, from a growth of manpower perspective, that is not going to happen, but from a growth in responsibility and workload, we see the wave coming.