Advice from Inside

The Defense Science Board, which advises the Department of Defense of a variety of matters, has published the second volume of "Transformation: A Progress Assessment". I found the section on DOD business practices most interesting. Here are some excerpts:

The Business Management processes of the Department are complicated and conflicting, and the systems that support them are inadequate, relative to the private sector. Improvement in this area offers a great opportunity for the Department to operate more effectively and efficiently to provide national security to its citizens.……………………………………………………………………………..

KEY ASSESSMENTS

The Task Force’s review concluded the following key assessments of the business processes and the systems that support them:

1. The Department does not have an effective multi-year business plan that aligns the resources of the Department, both personnel and financial, to its missions.

2. The capability-needs process continues to be dominated by the force providers and the Joint Staff, and is under-represented by the COCOM needs.

3. Logistics performance is well behind world-class standards in responsiveness, dependability, cost, and inventory management. The system is sub-optimized for each structural organization’s accountability, and many items are lost or mishandled at organizational hand-offs.

4. The allocation of the personnel resources of the Department, both civilian and military, does not reflect on mission priorities.

5. The Department management does not focus on outputs and metrics of performance with the same energy and focus as it does on acquiring resources; and accountability for performance-to-objectives is weak.

6. The Department needs integrated business management systems to support the management of resources and tracking for their use. The current systems are not interoperable and they do not reflect best practices.

7. The Department needs better methods for measuring and assuring Defense Agencies’ performance.