The "Twelfth Element" of Integrated Product Support
As many of you are no doubt already aware, the Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element Guidebook, one of the “Baker’s Dozen” of key DoD references available in our Integrated Product Support Guidebook Suite, underwent a comprehensive content update and revision last year and was reissued in September 2019.
As professional life cycle logisticians already know well, just months later, DoD updated the venerable Computer Resources Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element in December 2019, with this critical “twelfth element” redesigned in the DoD product support lexicon as “Information Technology Systems Continuous Support”. Concurrently, the OSD staff also updated the information in Table 11 and Paragraph A.12 of Appendix A of the DoD Product Support Manager’s (PSM) Guidebook (also a key reference in the guidebook suite mentioned earlier).
In recent weeks, as regular readers of this DAU LOG Blog have seen, I've been posting a series of blogs on each of the IPS Elements entitled "Touring Product Support, Element by Element", and not coincidentally the twelfth and final post in the series earlier this week was on (wait for it...) that “twelfth element”, namely Information Technology Systems Continuous Support.
Anyway, to make a long-story short, had an inquiry from an Army colleague yesterday about information sources on the newest element, and wanted to bring everybody up to speed with what I’d shared. The DAU IPS Element Guidebook that I’d mentioned earlier is being updated in conjunction with a major revision to our popular Integrated Product Support Implementation Roadmap Tool.. Both update efforts are currently underway. Wanted to let you know that we project the IPS Guidebook update to be complete by September, with completion of the roadmap tool revision by the end of the year.
In parallel, there are also dependencies with the not-yet-issued DoD Instruction 5000.PSM policy notionally entitled "Product Support Management for the Adaptive Acquisition Framework" which is currently in development at OSD. We understand that new DoD instruction will be out for formal staffing to the Services in the coming months, with formal issuance expected sometime later this summer.
In addition, an update to the DoD Life Cycle Logistics Competency set is also pending. Although somewhat dated (since it still reflects LCL competencies for the old Computer Resources element), the 2012 Life Cycle Logistics competency set available from our DAU Logistics Community of Practice (LOG CoP) might still be a helpful interim resource if you want to learn more.
A few resources and references to tide you over until updated IPS Element Guidebook, IPS Roadmap Tool, life cycle logistics competencies, and DoD product support policy are issued might include:
As professional life cycle logisticians already know well, just months later, DoD updated the venerable Computer Resources Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element in December 2019, with this critical “twelfth element” redesigned in the DoD product support lexicon as “Information Technology Systems Continuous Support”. Concurrently, the OSD staff also updated the information in Table 11 and Paragraph A.12 of Appendix A of the DoD Product Support Manager’s (PSM) Guidebook (also a key reference in the guidebook suite mentioned earlier).
In recent weeks, as regular readers of this DAU LOG Blog have seen, I've been posting a series of blogs on each of the IPS Elements entitled "Touring Product Support, Element by Element", and not coincidentally the twelfth and final post in the series earlier this week was on (wait for it...) that “twelfth element”, namely Information Technology Systems Continuous Support.
Anyway, to make a long-story short, had an inquiry from an Army colleague yesterday about information sources on the newest element, and wanted to bring everybody up to speed with what I’d shared. The DAU IPS Element Guidebook that I’d mentioned earlier is being updated in conjunction with a major revision to our popular Integrated Product Support Implementation Roadmap Tool.. Both update efforts are currently underway. Wanted to let you know that we project the IPS Guidebook update to be complete by September, with completion of the roadmap tool revision by the end of the year.
In parallel, there are also dependencies with the not-yet-issued DoD Instruction 5000.PSM policy notionally entitled "Product Support Management for the Adaptive Acquisition Framework" which is currently in development at OSD. We understand that new DoD instruction will be out for formal staffing to the Services in the coming months, with formal issuance expected sometime later this summer.
In addition, an update to the DoD Life Cycle Logistics Competency set is also pending. Although somewhat dated (since it still reflects LCL competencies for the old Computer Resources element), the 2012 Life Cycle Logistics competency set available from our DAU Logistics Community of Practice (LOG CoP) might still be a helpful interim resource if you want to learn more.
A few resources and references to tide you over until updated IPS Element Guidebook, IPS Roadmap Tool, life cycle logistics competencies, and DoD product support policy are issued might include:
- DoD Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook (Appendix A)
- DAU Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element Guidebook
- Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG), Chapter 4 (Life Cycle Sustainment)
- DoD Logistics Assessment Guidebook
- DAU Integrated Product Support Implementation Roadmap Tool
- CLL 046 The Twelve Integrated Product Support Elements
- Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements (ACQuipedia Overview Article)
- Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element – Information Technology (IT) Systems Continuous Support ACQuipedia Article
- 2012 Life Cycle Logistics Competency Set
- LOG CoP IPS Elements Site
- LOG CoP Information Technology (IT) Systems Continuous Support IPS Element Site