Resources

Client: Joint Staff, U.S. Department of Defense

Industry: Government

Objective: Improve methodology for identifying critical funding priorities

Summary

The Joint Capabilities Division helps the Joint Requirements Oversight Council of the Joint Staff assess, prioritize and recommend improvements in capabilities deficiencies across the military. With the pace of change accelerating, this process is more important than ever. But, their methodology relied on multiple tools and didn't promote sharing of information across military commands and services. The process was cumbersome and it wasn't clear whether the most critical needs were identified.

Decision Lens solved these issues. All the deficiencies are now prioritized consistently within one decision model framework. Consensus is also an important ingredient, helping decision-makers think beyond their constituency's needs. As a result, the country's critical military priorities are now identified in less than half the time previously required and with more accuracy. The results truly reflect Joint Staff priorities.

Challenge

The Joint Requirements Oversight Council is responsible for identifying, assessing, and prioritizing joint U.S. military force capabilities. A key function is to identify and prioritize the forces' capability deficiencies. The Joint Staff's Joint Capabilities Division leads this effort. Their experience making difficult decisions and trade-offs has led them to use decision support tools. The tools help to address the complex issues and opinions surrounding operational, technical, and infrastructure capabilities. However, the inflexibility of many tools required the use of different ones for different issues. Sometimes, operational issues could not be modeled in the same way as technical issues. Or, maybe knowledge gaps could not be assessed in the same way as equipment issues. At one point, the Division used eight different tools! It was difficult to create one consistent set of recommendations, as there was no way to normalize the results. In addition, they did not help reconcile the viewpoints represented by the different military commands, functions and services. Speed and efficiency dictated a new approach.

Solution

The Joint Capabilities Division has now standardized on the Decision Lens Suite™ decision support solution. The flexibility of the software allows all decisions to be modeled together. Decision Lens' experienced personnel help to identify the factors to be included in the model. Then, they guide discussions to determine the decision criteria to be used. The decision-making body, representing the different commands and services, share their expertise and reach consensus.

Using these mutually agreed upon criteria, the respective military functions and services then present their capability issues. Each one is evaluated consistently, according to how they contribute to the military's overall capability goals. A list of proposed priorities with an associated recommendation for action is generated.

Results

The Decision Lens solution leads to more analytically sound results in less than half the time. In fact, each decision cycle is faster than the last one. By modeling all the decisions consistently in one place, the Joint Staff is able to speed up the process. And, reaching consensus means the final list of critical priorities reflects a more comprehensive evaluation of the issues. The diverse viewpoints are captured, incorporated and agreed upon.

Since the decision process is faster, more time is available for review and sensitivity analysis. By the time the results are presented, any concerns have been adequately addressed.

The tool presents information in a very usable way, making it easy for senior leadership to understand the decisions and move quickly to resolve the prioritized deficiencies. Decision Lens software and services allow the U.S. military to make critical decisions faster and more effectively in a way that truly captures Joint Staff priorities.

 

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