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Can you provide any guidance for preparing a gap analysis or capabilities based assessment that is related specifically to military installation infrastructure and processes? Also, if you can provide an example of such a gap analysis or assessment that has previously been prepared by any defense service or agency, that would be very helpful. Thanks.
Answer
DAU has numerous resources specifically related to Capabilities Based Assessments (CBA). These include a CBA tool and a CBA ACQuipedia article. As you are likely aware, a CBAs follow a process intended to answer key questions for the validation authority prior to solution approval. By following the CBA process outlined in the CBA tool, you will define the mission, identify needed capabilities, determine the attributes of the capabilities, identify capability gaps and redundancies, assess the operational risks associated with the gaps, prioritize the gaps, identify and assess potential solutions and finally, provide recommendations for addressing the gaps. This process applies to both materiel and non-material solutions.

Other references specifically related to CBAs include the following training resources:
- CLR 250 Capabilities-Based Assessment
- RQM 110 Core Concepts for Requirements Management
Unfortunately, we do not have specific CBA material on military installation infrastructure /processes, but do have other guidance material that may be helpful.

In order to determine your installations’ capabilities and gaps, recommend you peruse this Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element’s ACQuipedia article entitled Facilities and Infrastructure. It addresses these major planning factors:
- Location
- Space requirements
- Environmental requirements
- Security requirements
- Utilities requirements
- Storage requirements determination
- Equipment requirements determination
- Existing versus new facilities determination
- Site activation requirements
Additional information on each of these facilities planning factors are located in Section 11 of the IPS Element Guidebook.

Second, recommend you become familiar with the Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA) Guidebook and its standard process. It provides a complementary methodology that can help you identify and compare alternatives. The BCA approach requires examination of both mission and business impacts (to include financial and non-financial factors), risks, and sensitivities. It is important to note that BCAs are different from other decision support tools due to their emphasis on stakeholder input.

Utilizing an analysis like a BCA (also called an Economic Analysis, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Benefit-Cost Analysis) will help make an informed decision, no matter what type of capability, product or service is under consideration. Each BCA should be tailored to capture the costs, benefits and risk implications of the alternatives being considered – which in your case, would be related to facilities, infrastructure and other related elements. It will help you and your organization identify and capture needs, will help you identify viable options, and will help you prioritize and weigh their pros and cons of them in order to provide a fair assessment of the proposed alternatives.
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