DoD Integrated Product Support Implementation Roadmap - Help

This site displays many hundreds of items in the simplest ways possible. However, these ways may still seem complex to new users. The following instructions should help…

Home Page

The Home page is the hub from which all other pages on this site are available. The most important pages are the List View page and the Timeline View page. As described on the Home page, the List View and the Timeline View each has their own advantages or benefits.

Both views allow filtering by row; to shorten the height of the view and to hide the less important information. The List View allows filtering of the columns too. This page is more compact with less scrolling. However, the page is more complex and requires more interpretation.

The Timeline View is simple, but very big. Most computers can display only a small part of the total area of the expanded, unfiltered content.

An alternative is the Download page. This PDF of the Timeline view will not allow navigation to on-line guidance. However, it does include all the expanded content, available for printing at any size.

Navigating this Site

On any page, (except the Home page), click the title on the left side of the banner to return to the Home page. Click the right side of the banner to open the DAU Home page.

Just below the banner is a horizontal ribbon of buttons for navigating this site. These buttons appear on every page. Click the Home, List View, Timeline View, and Help buttons to navigate to each page. Click the other buttons, Download and Feedback, and their content will open in a new page.

View Pages

The List View and the Timeline View pages are viewports onto a table arranged in rows and columns. The top two rows list the deliverables and actions, including reviews, expected throughout the life cycle of a defense acquisition program. The bottom twelve columns list the requirements for each of the specialized elements integrated within the support of a DoD product.

Both View pages also divide the table into columns arranged in columns sorted in chronological order. The column with a yellow background lists data about the first phase at the start of the acquisition life cycle, the Materiel Solution Analysis (MSA) phase. The blue column next to it, list Technology Development (TD) phase requirements. The Engineering and Manufacturing Development (E&MD) phase is in the middle, in orange. After that is the green column of Production and Deployment (P&D) requirements. The right-most column lists the Operations and Support (O&S) data.

Within each phase, the column is split in two. Data about activities required in a phase is recorded in the left half of the column. The right half is shaded, and records data about output required in that phase.

Filtering the View: How to Expand and Collapse Rows

Both View pages display a very large amount of data interactively. The rows can expand to show data of interest and can collapse to hide less important data. To expand or collapse a row, either click the checkbox in the list of filters on the left side of the page, or click the row title: the list of filters indicates the rows displayed even if beyond the edge of the viewport.

Finding items

In most desktop computer browsers, press Ctrl+F on the keyboard or select Edit > Find from the menu to open a Find toolbar or dialog box. This browser control will usually scroll to and highlight each occurrence of the item, in turn.

List View

Click a row in the list view to expand it. When expanded, a row in the List View displays requirements for that product support element in rows indented below it. The List can quickly grow beyond the viewport. To shorten the List, click any of the filter checkboxes to the left of the page.

Filtering the Phases: How to Shorten the List More

Most of the checkboxes expand or collapse rows: but the List View allows filtering by column too. However, rather than hiding the columns, the Life Cycle Phase filters hide items within rows that match the selected checkboxes. The count of the remaining items appears at the end of the header for each row.

Timeline View

The Timeline View describes every required activity and output in each phase of the life cycle. To shorten the View, click any of the rows to collapse it, or click the filters on the left of the page.

Resizing the Viewport

However, the display in Timeline View is very wide and has no way to make it narrower. To see more of the display, resize the window using any of these methods:

• Stretch it by clicking-and-dragging the edge of the browser window
• Maximize it by clicking the Maximize button in the title bar of the browser, or by selecting Maximize from the Window menu in the title bar of the browser window, or by double-clicking the title bar
• Switch to Full-Screen Mode by pressing F11 on the keyboard or selecting View > Full Screen from the browser pull-down menu

Zooming the Window

If re-sizing the window doesn’t help enough, change the zoom of the browser by pressing Ctrl+– (minus) on the keyboard to Zoom Out, or press Ctrl++ (plus) to Zoom In. To Reset the Zoom to normal, press Ctrl+0 (zero) on the keyboard. The zero, minus, and plus keys are all in a row near the top of the keyboard. Another way is to select View > Zoom… from the browser menu bar.

Metacards

Throughout the site, clicking an item displays a pop-up “metacard” of important information and links about the item clicked. Most of the links on a metacard navigate to reference material in a page on another web site. However, some metacards include links to related metacards at the bottom of the card.

Submitting Feedback about a Metacard

To report any errors or broken links in a metacard, or to suggest additions or other improvements to a metacard, click the Submit Feedback button at the bottom of the metacard. This opens an e-mail program and addresses a new message ready for feedback about that metacard.

Download

To view a printable version of the Timeline View, click the Download button in the ribbon of just below the banner. Although this file is a portable copy — select File > Save from the browser menu — of the Timeline View, it displays all the rows expanded therefore it is five feet tall! Some printers may be able to resize the file and still reproduce a legible, small copy. Some printers may offer the option to “tile” the image over many separate sheets of paper, to assemble into a whole chart.

Of course, the downloaded file is no longer interactive when printed. To see the content in the metacards, return to the web DoD web site.

Feedback (Under Construction)

To submit feedback about anything on the site other than a metacard, click the Feedback button in the ribbon at the top of the page, just below the banner. Use this control to report any errors or to suggest any improvements to the Home page, List View, Timeline View, or about the site in general.