Life Cycle Logistics—Key Tenets of Back-to-Basics

Lisa P. Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Product Support

The Sept. 2, 2020, memorandum from the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, “‘Back-to-Basics’ for the Defense Acquisition Workforce,” represents perhaps the most significant update to Defense Acquisition Workforce certification and governance since implementation of the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) three decades ago. As the Department of Defense (DoD) prepares to implement this transformation, we know the following to be true:

• “It is imperative that we pivot from the past broad workforce focus and get ‘Back-to-Basics’ by streamlining our functional area framework and prioritizing limited training resources for the Defense Acquisition Workforce who develop, acquire, and sustain operational capability.”
• The Defense Acquisition Workforce was restructured and consolidated under six overarching functional areas: Program Management, Engineering and Technical Management, Contracting, Test and Evaluation, Business-Financial Management and Cost Estimating, and Life Cycle Logistics.
• Launch of the “Back-to-Basics 21st Century Acquisition Workforce Talent Management Framework” includes all six functional areas with an Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) designated functional area leader supported by counterparts designated by the Service Acquisition Executives.
• Back-to-Basics outcomes for each functional area include three key outcomes: streamlined and restructured certification requirements, identified prioritized credentials, and provision of continuous learning.

Why … and Why Now?

According to an Oct. 1, 2020, Message from the Defense Acquisition Workforce Leadership Team, “…we can and must provide the workforce an improved certification and training framework and tools to successfully deliver capability to the force at the speed of relevance. Much like the acquisition system itself, our workforce management framework has grown to include excessive requirements and doesn’t have the flexibility to respond to diverse and changing demands in a complex and dynamic environment.” This necessitated a “shift to modern talent management for the acquisition workforce for their current and future success—starting by streamlining the OSD acquisition certification structure, reducing OSD-required training and creating a 21st century job-relevant learning environment and culture.”

Coupled with budget realities and the rapid evolution of technology and the threat environment, the imperative for change that the Back-to-Basics initiative provides is clear, compelling, and urgent. Moreover, I would contend that strategic workforce development imperatives include:

• The environment in which we operate is too complex for a “one size fits all” approach. We need more granular, targeted, engaging, “just-in-time” training, and lifelong professional development.
• As Defense Acquisition Workforce members, we must “up our game.” We must take greater responsibility for professional development, recognize the need to refresh skills continuously, and acknowledge the imperative of lifelong learning.
• We must master our craft by recognizing, understanding, and applying key technical competencies within, in collaboration with, and across each of the six Acquisition Workforce functional areas.
• We must efficiently utilize training opportunities. We cannot afford to waste people’s time with unnecessary training or “scrap learning.”
• We must all hone our skills to become critical thinkers who can intuitively grasp both strategic and tactical implications and applications. Our Life Cycle Logistics workforce needs both a deep bench of broadly based generalists coupled with a similarly deep bench of skilled practitioners and subject-matter experts.
• We must be a Defense Acquisition Workforce that operates successfully in an environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, prepared to respond quickly and decisively to rapidly evolving technology, threats, funding, and requirements.
• We must be a workforce that embraces and understands key leadership competencies (e.g., leading change, leading people, results driven, business-acumen-building coalitions, public service motivation, interpersonal skills, oral/written communication, integrity/honesty, and, not coincidentally, continual learning).

So what might a successful “Back-to-Basics 21st Century Acquisition Workforce Talent Management Framework” look like? Let’s start with what we know, then pivot to some powerful success enablers. Undergirding all of this, regardless of functional area, personal experience, or organizational assignment, must be unrelenting commitment to six overarching principles. Deliberate integration, alignment, and balance are necessary to mitigate the risk of each being inadvertently treated as competing rather than complementary priorities.

• Warfighter and war-winning-focused capabilities
• Interdisciplinary alignment and cross-functional integration
• Achieving cost, schedule, performance, and supportability outcomes
• Embraced by both functional area leadership and members of the Defense Acquisition Workforce
• Crafting “best value” implementation strategies that achieve both effectiveness and efficiency
• Life cycle management that seamlessly delivers required acquisition and sustainment outcomes
• Workforce excellence delivering successful acquisition/sustainment outcomes

Ultimately, of course, to be understood and embraced by functional area leadership and workforce members alike, a successful transformation strategy of this magnitude must be clear, compelling, and readily embraced. I am convinced this is the case.

Lifelong Learning at the Core

Let us take a closer look at how our Life Cycle Logistics community has chosen to approach this strategic imperative. At the core of Back-to-Basics is lifelong learning. Required training will be streamlined and supplemented by role-specific training to meet individual needs.

A DoD Life Cycle Logistics Functional Area Transformation Task Force led by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Product Support has actively worked the details for the outcomes listed above over the last two years. Composed of key stakeholders from across the Services, Defense agencies, Joint Chiefs staff, and DAU and OSD staff, the transformation team proposed, staffed, and received approval to proceed with substantive updates to long-standing DAWIA certification requirements. In addition, the team developed a series of new Life Cycle Logistics credentials built around each of the 12 Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements. The results of the Life Cycle Logistics Transformation Task Force are both exciting and impactful (Table 1). Accomplishing this required a major restructuring of the long-standing DAWIA certification model that includes:

• Streamlining from three mandatory certification levels to two
• Reducing mandatory training by approximately 100 hours
• Updating experiential requirements from the former 1-2-4-year model to a more appropriate 2-5-year model
• Working with Service Directors for Acquisition Career Management/Defense Acquisition Talent Management Systems to ensure proper coding of positions
• Deliberate and intentional alignment with functional area competency requirements
• Integrating with ongoing DAU Transformation to focus on more relevant, responsive, engaging, targeted, virtual, and just-in-time credential-based learning 
• Collaborating, communicating, and teaming, which are clearly more important than ever

This exciting defense acquisition workforce professional development transformation journey is almost certainly to be challenging, continuous, and occasionally arduous.

Table 1. BtB Certification and Credentialing for the Life Cycle Logistics Workforce

Note 1: Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) versions of classroom courses are acceptable alternatives).
Note 2: Many course numbers will be updated as DAU implements new streamlined numbering schema.
Note 3: Prerequisites may be required for some courses.
Note 4: As of Feb. 1, 2022

Supported by Competency-Focused Credentials

Directly Aligned with the 12 Interdisciplinary Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements

After certification, the Defense Acquisition Credential Program provides job-relevant, point-of-need training in specific acquisition topics. Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of the Life Cycle Logistics professional development revolution are 15 new interdisciplinary IPS Element-based credentials that undergird the streamlined certification requirements. Development and deployment of these credentials are already under way, with completion slated before the end of Fiscal Year 2022. These new multi-disciplinary credentials include:

CLCL 001 Product Support Management Fundamentals
CLCL 002 Integrated Product Support
CLCL 003 Supply Chain Integration
CLCL 004 Maintenance Planning and Management
CLCL 005 Supportability and Design Interface
CLCL 006 Designing Supportable Systems
CLCL 007 Product Support Analysis
CLCL 008 Product Support Arrangements
CLCL 009 Information Technology Life Cycle Support
CLCL 010 Technical Data Management
CLCL 011 Product Support Affordability and Cost Fundamentals
CLCL 012 Product Support Operating and Support Cost Management
CLCL 013 Packaging, Handling, Storage and Transportation (PHS&T)
CLCL 014 Parts and Material Life Cycle Management
CLCL 015 Product Support Infrastructure

The defense acquisition workforce is expected to think critically, make smart decision, and move quickly.

Figure 1. Life Cycle Logistics

The impact and opportunities of this professional development approach in general, and of these new Life Cycle Logistics and product support credentials in particular, are substantial. They:

• Facilitate lifelong learning
• Are interdisciplinary, IPS Element-based, competency aligned and component approved
• Are tailored to better meet unique professional development needs of Defense Acquisition Workforce members
• Are more responsive to rapidly evolving priorities, technologies, threats, and operating environment
• Are standardized in length (generally 30 hours in duration, plus or minus 10 hours)
• Are predominantly application-based rather than knowledge-based, with demonstrated proficiency-based end-of-credential assessments
• Have flexibility to evolve as requirements change
• Provide more personalized, self-selected learning to deepen skills
• Increase supervisor and organizational involvement in professional development

Where Do We Go From Here?

Recrafting mandatory certification requirements, transforming DAU, and deploying new credentials are essential first steps to implementation of a successful Back-to-Basics 21st Century Acquisition Workforce Talent Management Framework, but they are only the first of many. Today’s rapidly evolving environment makes it clear that Defense Acquisition Workforce members do not have the luxury of a “one and done” approach to professional development transformation.

We must recognize the rapidly changing demographics of our workforce from a Baby Boomer-centric workforce (generally those born between 1946-1964) to the digital natives of Generation X (born between 1965-1980), Generation Y (born between 1980-1994; also referred to as Millennials), and Generation Z (born between 1996-2015). How knowledge and information are prioritized, delivered, conveyed, and accessed will continue evolving. How we develop, secure, and protect that information are quickly becoming national security imperatives. Sorting through and selecting from a mountain of information to identify knowledge we need, at just the right time, is increasingly critical. Traditional methods like registering well in advance for a multi-week classroom-based training course may still have their place, but to be successful we also need immediate, secure, real-time, and easily accessible key information.

For our DAU teammates, this means a rapid and dramatic transformation that includes greater focus on a wider range of professional development opportunities for our workforce, including more micro-learning, web-based resources, virtual instructor-led training course options, webcasts, videos, podcasts, powerful examples of program success, open workshops, interdisciplinary credentials, and virtual events. It entails more engaging, interesting, impactful, relevant, and timely learning assets. It involves increased responsiveness, more targeted mission assistance, executive coaching, and outreach. It also involves reduced costs, shorter development times, and compressed update cycles (Figure 1).

As our leadership has made clear to our DAU teammates, defense acquisition requires quality, speed, and agility. The Defense Acquisition Workforce is expected to think critically, make smart decisions, and move quickly. To better meet the changing needs of the workforce, DAU is transforming into a modern learning platform providing lifelong learning and support tailored to the needs of our Defense Acquisition Workforce teammates.

Finally, I contend that the present and the future require this transformation. An increasingly important role in shaping our activity and professional development will be played by the implementation policies and guidance of the new DoD and Service Adaptive Acquisition Framework. These include DoD Instruction 5000.91 “Product Support Management for the Adaptive Acquisition Framework,” recently issued by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

Are you ready? Our nation and our Warfighters are counting on your readiness.

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SMITH is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Product Support.

For further information about training and credentials in your area, contact the office of your respective DACM or DATM: Army, [email protected]; Navy, [email protected]; Air Force, S[email protected]; 4th Estate, [email protected]. 

Photo source:
U.S. Air National Guard 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the Department of Defense. Reproduction or reposting of articles from Defense Acquisition magazine should credit the authors and the magazine.