Welcome to the 4th Estate DACM's Community of Practice. The initial focus of this community's purpose is to provide quota and travel managers and DAWIA points of contact across all 4th Estate agencies with an open forum to exchange information and ideas that help complete daily and regular tasks, as well as for the 4th Estate DACM team itself to provide assistance and resources that help those same managers and POCs be effective as possible in their jobs.

The goals of this Community are to facilitate knowledge sharing across the acquisition community and to serve as the central clearinghouse for service acquisition policy and guidance information, training opportunities and best practices to support both the public and private sectors. 

This Community serves to assist non-lawyers in the Acquisition Workforce by providing a centralized location for researching acquisition law issues. A myriad of laws and regulations control the actions of the Acquisition Workforce, from the development of the acquisition requirement through contract close out and final fund disbursement.

This community serves as an interdisciplinary knowledge repository for life cycle logistics, production, quality and manufacturing (PQM), systems engineering, acquisition law, and other defense acquisition workforce members and their defense industry counterparts. This community contains an extensive body of knowledge on this rapidly evolving topic, including processes and procedures, organizations and consortiums, and links to an extensive library of reports, papers, articles, and GAO/IG audits.

The Aircraft Operations Community serves as the DoD's repository for all Contractor Flight and Ground Operations oversight Workload and Performance training, documents, publications, and Job Support Tools necessary for the Government Flight or Government Ground Representative to be successful in the execution of FAR 42.302(a)56, "Maintain Surveillance of Flight Operations" 

This Community supports DoD’s cost estimating career field. As advisors to commanders, Program Executive Officers (PEOs), program managers, and other acquisition decision makers, individuals in this career field are responsible for Life Cycle Cost Estimating of defense acquisition programs in direct support of the defense acquisition process. The community covers all aspects of developing a Life Cycle Cost Estimate including requirements assessment, Work Breakdown Structures, data sources, data normalization and analysis, parametric and non-parametric modeling, software cost estimating, Operations and Support cost estimating, cost risk/uncertainty analysis and documentation and presentation of cost estimates.

This Community supports the business financial management career field. The community serves as a resource for DoD financial management, budget formulation (building a budget), budget enactment, and budget execution.

The Department of Defense's implementation of Category Management (CM) consists of a structured, data-driven business practice whereby the organization broadly and strategically analyzes and manages common categories of spend with an enterprise-wide focus in order to eliminate redundancies, increase efficiencies, and enhance mission effectiveness. The CM Community of Practice serves as the DoD's central hub for enterprise-wide Category Management support, resources, training, collaboration, and development. 

The Collaborate community serves to support community leaders and moderators in sharing best practices and techniques for creating engaging communities of practice that add value to their members. Users may also request a site by using the Pinned Content.

The Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) and Commercial Services Community of Practice was created to disseminate information to Defense Acquisition Workforce personnel engaged in the acquisition of innovative, cutting-edge commercial technologies. This site is intended to address those areas of technology where the commercial market place is moving faster than the normal acquisition timeline for complex weapon systems, and for which alternative methods of acquiring these technologies is necessary. Examples of these technologies include information technology, micro-electronics, some sensor technologies, some radio frequency devices and some software products. Acquisition of these technologies requires innovative solutions.

The Contingency Contracting Community serves as the central repository for contingency contracting knowledge. The community is supported by a team of experts from all services to facilitate knowledge sharing, linking the joint contingency contracting community together to achieve mission goals. This community provides policy and guidance information, deployment information, contract administration information, training materials, CCO tools and related learning assets. 

This community is designed to present relevant and timely post-award contract administration information for the DCMA workforce, as well as other acquisition fields interested in post-award contracting and pricing. 

This Community serves as a resource for the Contract Cost, Price & Finance Community by providing references to relevant guides and related websites. Share your success stories, pricing tools and other resources to better support the community.

This Community serves as a source for contracting information and resources. Additionally, the community serves as a collaborative resource to aid the contracting workforce in performing their job.

This Community supports you and other COR community members by providing a central clearinghouse of knowledge and learning assets as well as facilitates the sharing of best practices and lessons learned within the COR discussion area. Additionally, the community serves as a collaborative resource to aid learners with the new online COR course. Your participation is appreciated and necessary to increase the information knowledge base within the COR CoP. 

The purpose of this Corrosion community is to encourage collaboration between research engineers, scientists, maintainers, and managers on the logistics needs of the DoD with an emphasis on stakeholder communication. Acquisition and sustainment processes require maximum communications and cooperation to have an effect on reducing total life cycle costs due to corrosion. This community not only brings the corrosion community together, but also the weapon systems and facilities communities toward reducing costs and increasing availability. These objectives can be achieved through the engagement of our community members who represent the government, including the DoD, FHWA, NASA, GSA, and our partners from Industry, Academia, and Allied Nations. 

This Community will be sunsetting soon, but please check out this location for information on Cybersecurity Training at DAU.  

This Community serves as a resource for data managers. The community facilitates the use of DM practices to effective, repeatable methods, establishes new goals and objectives for data managers to develop new skills, embrace the use of technology, increase our understanding of hardware/software, incorporate legacy data effectively, and forge new working, cooperative relationships with information technologists, contracting specialists, program managers, engineers, and analysts. The purpose of this Data Management workspace is to facilitate this evolution and to share knowledge that holds value in the Data Management profession. 

The Defense Standardization Knowledge Sharing Portal (DSKSP) was developed by the Defense Standardization Program Office (DSPO) to engage with standardization stakeholders and to share experiences, tools, lessons learned, and ways of addressing standardization management matters within DoD. Additionally, this community of practice was created to provide information about the Defense Standardization Program (DSP). The DSP exists to identify, influence, develop, manage, and provide access to standardization processes, products, and services for warfighters, the acquisition community, and the logistics community to promote interoperability, reduce total ownership costs, and sustain readiness.

The DMSMS Knowledge Sharing Portal (DKSP) is focused on being a non-biased one-stop provider of DMSMS related information, resources and material to empower the Department of Defense (DoD) community, both Organic and Industrial, to implement best practices for monitoring, tracking, resolving, and performing analytical logistic and engineering analysis related to obsolescence impacts.

DoD ESI is an official initiative sponsored by the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) to lead in the establishment and management of enterprise COTS IT agreements, assets, and policies. DoD ESI lowers the total cost of ownership across the DoD, Coast Guard, and Intelligence Communities for commercial software, IT hardware, and services, with over $6B in cost avoidance since inception in 1998.

This community serves as a resource for earned value management (EVM) and seeks to encourage effective use of DoD’s and industry’s most powerful program planning and management tools. EVM promotes an environment where contract execution data is shared between project personnel and government oversight staff and in which emerging problems are identified, pinpointed, and acted upon as early as possible.

This Community serves to support the design, construction, and life-cycle maintenance of military installations, facilities, civil works projects, airfields, roadways, and ocean facilities. Resources include all facets of life cycle management from planning through disposal, including design, construction, environmental protection, base operations and support, housing, real estate, and real property maintenance.

This Community serves as a resource for Government Property Administrators and Plant Clearance Officers. The community provides information and resources to support the proper management and oversight of government property. With over $100 billion worth of Government property in the hands of Department of Defense contractors Government property impacts the development and fielding of virtually every major weapon system platform today. It is hoped that this community will help you learn and understand more about this critical acquisition field.

The Hazardous Materials Packaging & Transportation Community is designed to assist all DOD HAZMAT employees to find information necessary to package and transport Hazardous Materials. The Community is maintained by members of the Hazardous Materials Packaging Working Group. It serves to provide Points of Contact, Policies, Hot Topics, Compliance Checklists, Training links and various Job Aids. 

Integrating human performance considerations into the defense acquisition system can present substantial challenges for Human Systems Integration (HSI) practitioners and stakeholders. The DAU HSI Community of Practice (CoP) provides a unique resource in this pursuit, offering a convenient platform to share knowledge aimed at achieving effective and relevant HSI practice across government, industry, and academia. The HSI COP aims to help stakeholders find knowledge that can be readily applied in practice, including references, standards, templates, lessons learned, and best practices. It also provides a central hub for HSI education and training opportunities, community discussion, tools of the trade, and links to the greater HSI community of stakeholders. Join today! 

We're a new community. When our moderators get a chance, they'll update this page to tell you more about our purpose, our activities, and the rules of conduct here on our site.

This community is here to support your IT/software acquisition needs. IT/Software has rapidly become the critical component to DoD’s success on and off the battlefield. This community is focused on collaborating with the IT/software Acquisition workforce to ensure we engineer, design, develop and sustain world-class IT/software acquisition practices. This community touches on all aspects of IT/software acquisition for the improvement of better, faster, cheaper software solutions for all DoD personnel.

The Intellectual Property and Data Rights (IDPR) Community serves as a centralized location for laws, regulations, judicial opinions, DoD policies, news, announcements, and DAU courses on intellectual property (IP) and data rights topics, including the intersection of IP and emerging and other technology and licensing approaches, such as open source software, Modular Open Systems Approaches, Cloud Computing, and Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing). This one-stop shop for all things IP and Data Rights also includes links to federal agencies that administer IP laws and serves as a useful tool for the Acquisition workforce as they consider IP and Data Rights and create an IP strategy as part of the program's acquisition strategy, which considers licensing and data rights throughout all phases of the contracting process (i.e., program development, contracting, product delivery, and maintenance and data management).

This Community is a resource to help prepare the DoD Workforce to plan for and execute the unique considerations of international acquisition within the Defense Acquisition System by providing information and engagement to enhance workforce performance and productivity in International Acquisition and Exportability (IA&E). To reach DSMC-International Center directly for assistance or questions, please contact us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

This community serves as an interdisciplinary knowledge repository for life cycle logistics, sustainment and product support guidance, policies, processes, references, resources, and tools. Serving as a one-stop site for DoD life cycle logisticians, product support managers, other defense acquisition workforce members, and their defense industry counterparts, the site also contains extensive information on the 12 Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements, Product Support Manager (PSM), Performance Based Logistics (PBL), Life Cycle Logistics Workforce professional development, and key DoD product support references.

We're a new community. When our moderators get a chance, they'll update this page to tell you more about our purpose, our activities, and the rules of conduct here on our site.

This Community is focused on providing a single source for the current body-of-practice, which include pointers to the latest in policy, guidance, and research covering various aspects, from an overarching to agency/service specific viewpoint; and remind the MOSA concept users and implementers that there are many aspects to properly instantiating MOSA for the benefit of DoD.

This Community serves to share knowledge throughout the ammunition enterprise. Military personnel, DOD civilians, supporting contractors, and other agencies can leverage expertise, share experiences, ask questions and participate in discussions. Never before has the need to rapidly share knowledge to support the Warfighter been more critical. We solicit your participation and feedback. 

This Post Award community's goals are to facilitate knowledge sharing across the NASA, DoD Space Acquisition and US Space Force communities, promote best practices, serve as a repository for information related to Government Contract Quality Assurance (GCQA), encourage idea sharing, and provide assistance to the DCMA, DoD NASA, DoD Space Acquisition and US Space Force communities. This community provides an opportunity to discuss problems or topics with subject matter experts (SMEs), share ideas and best practices, ask questions and acquire knowledge and skills to improve performance of GCQA.

Welcome to the Naval Test and Evaluation Community hosted by OPNAV N94, staff for the Office of the Naval T&E Executive. The purpose of this community is to provide an open-source searchable location for all Navy and Marine Corps acquisition personnel to find the latest in DoD and Navy policy and guidance relating to Test and Evaluation.

The Other Transactions Community of Practice (aka the OT CoP) is designed to be your destination of choice for information regarding Other Transactions within the Department of Defense. At the OT CoP, you will find information regarding the history of OTs; links to statutes, policies, and guidance relative to OTs; access to OT training; information about upcoming OT events; and lessons learned from others in the OT community. You also will find a forum where you can ask OT subject matter experts and other members of the OT community questions pertinent to your specific OT matters. As a member of the OT CoP, you can also share your knowledge and experiences with others. 

The Parts Management Knowledge Sharing Portal (PMKSP) is designed to provide an easily accessible knowledge base for parts management related information and a forum for parts management related discussions. The purpose of the DoD Parts Management Program is to establish parts management best practices across DoD in order to increase weapon system availability and reduce total ownership costs. Selecting preferred parts during weapon system design drives positive outcomes throughout the life cycle of a system.

This Community serves as an interdisciplinary platform to connect PBL practitioners from across multiple career fields, facilitate knowledge sharing and peer support, as well as provide a knowledge repository for key PBL-related material across the Department of Defense.

This Community serves as a central resource for production, quality and manufacturing information, references and processes. 

This Community serves as the central repository for Program Management knowledge for the Defense Acquisition Workforce. 

The goal of this community is to provide an enterprise platform for sharing tools, best business practices, lessons learned, and other relevant info to enhance the cross-collaboration between its members who represent the Military Services, other DoD agencies, the defense industry and academia. Additionally, this CoP provides a centralized repository that, besides providing a ready resource of applicable reference material, also provides access to applicable subject matter experts (SMEs) for assistance with resolving issues related to Public-Private Partnering. 

This Post Award Quality Assurance community's goals are to facilitate knowledge sharing across the Quality Assurance community, promote best practices, serve as a repository for information related to Government Contract Quality Assurance (GCQA), encourage idea sharing, and provide assistance to the DCMA and DoD QA communities. This community provides an opportunity to discuss problems or topics with subject matter experts (SMEs), share ideas and best practices, ask questions and acquire knowledge and skills to improve performance of GCQA.

The purpose of the Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) Engineering Community of Practice (CoP) is to help the R&M workforce plan and execute a comprehensive R&M program using an appropriate strategy consisting of engineering activities, products, and digital artifacts. This community encourages collaboration, provides links to DAU R&M Engineering courses, and hosts the R&M Engineering Management Body of Knowledge (BoK). Users of the BoK will find helpful links to other R&M resources that provide detailed "how to" examples and mathematical models needed to perform R&M engineering activities. The R&M Engineering Management BoK is an acquisition tool focused on the R&M Engineering activities needed to deliver reliable, maintainable, and supportable capabilities to the warfighter. 

This Community is your GO-TO PLACE for ALL THINGS REQUIREMENTS! We leverage the Requirements Managers Community’s corporate experience, expertise, and knowledge to provide what you need to get your job done. You can collaborate with our DAU team of experts and your Community peers to help get answers to your questions. Our Community also provides you ready online access to key documents, policies, tools, and other learning assets, as well as links to additional resources, to support you on-the-job and at the point of need. You can help your Requirements Managers Community build on, and pass on, our collective knowledge for getting requirements done right by sharing your best practices, expert knowledge, and lessons learned. Get better outcomes. Build your Community. Improve Acquisition.

This Community serves as a source for risk management information and resources. The companion-linked DoD/DAU Risk Guidebook is the first source to which a novice or experienced practitioner will go to get answers and obtain a pulse on the state of Risk Management. This Risk CoP website and the Risk Guidebook have applications across government and many industries. 

This Community serves as a resources for science and technology management and provides a forum for the Defense Acquisition Workforce to collaborate and share information, connecting people with the resources that can help enhance their job effectiveness. 

This Community serves as the central repository for small business policy and guidance information, small business programs, training materials, tools and related learning assets. 

This community provides a forum for information exchange and peer-to-peer discussions to provide acquisition organizations enterprise best practices to accomplish smart, disciplined, efficient, and effective program shut down when required to do so. This community provides the defense acquisition community a forum for their “voice to be heard” in identifying goals, processes, shortfalls, issues, best practices, plans, and considerations in all aspects of program shut down activities.

This Community serves to support the space acquisition community members with immediate access to the learning assets they need to sustain and enhance their overall performance. The site provides lessons learned, updated directives, and key POCs if you need to calibrate your acquisition actions and decisions and/or just need some extra help in the context of your daily space acquisition duties. 

This Community is brought to you by DISA's Defense Spectrum Organization's (DSO) Joint Spectrum Center (JSC). Compliance with Spectrum Supportability (SS) requirements and control of E3 can be critical performance parameters for platforms, systems, and electronic equipment acquired by the DoD. If these technical areas are not given the proper level of attention during the acquisition process, you can be sure that fielded systems will suffer from some level of operational degradation up to, and including catastrophic failures or unacceptable operating restrictions. This CoP is to be used for training purposes only. 

This Community serves as a collaborative space to provide resources for systems engineering (SE) practitioners. These resources support program planning and design activities as well as implementation of SE processes. In addition this Community offers a variety of ways for the SE to network with other SE practitioners, to access current community contributions and discussions on SE tips and best practices, and to share expert knowledge related to SE.

Welcome to the Test & Evaluation (T&E) Community of Practice. T&E is the process by which a system or components are exercised and results analyzed to provide performance-related information. The purpose of this site is simple - to provide T&E practitioners with up to date T&E policy and guidance information as issued by the Department of Defense and Components. Users will find information on general policy for Developmental T&E and Operational T&E, as well as more specific T&E topics such as cybersecurity, reliability, and interoperability. The site also points users to sources of T&E training and certification.