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In early July, the House Armed Services Committee released its Chairman’s Mark for the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), embedding a clear congressional call for data-driven, scenario-based reforms to the Department of Defense’s Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process. For public-sector and defense organizations, this isn’t just legislative language—it’s a mandate to modernize decision-making workflows, break down data silos, and adopt commercial decision-intelligence tools like Decision Lens.
While the NDAA is still being debated, the inclusion of this language at such an early and influential stage signals serious congressional momentum behind PPBE Reform. Agencies should begin preparing now for a future in which modern tools and data-driven decision-making are not just recommended but expected.
The proposed language can be found at the end of this post.
A Legislative Mandate for Modern Tools
Key Takeaway: Decision intelligence is no longer optional. It’s the new normal for a modern PPBE process.
Why It Matters: This language supports data-driven, scenario-based reforms that leverage commercial technologies to enhance PPBE. By codifying this support, the NDAA would:
- Elevate decision-support software to policy priorities.
- Demand integration of advanced analytics and scenario modeling into day-to-day funding and force-management decisions.
Decision Lens delivers government organizations to operationalize decision science by integrating:
- Scenario modeling: Evaluate trade-offs and explore funding alternatives in real time
- Advanced analytics: Turn raw data into actionable insights for smarter, faster decisions
- Built-in collaboration tools: Capture rationale, align stakeholders, and increase transparency
- Mission alignment: Ensure every dollar is prioritized based on strategic impact
Interoperability and Open APIs: The New Baseline
A cornerstone of the NDAA language directs the DoD to report by March 31, 2026, on how it will “ensure data interoperability, including an open application programming interface (API) access, to enable secured commercial software to interact with data.”
Key Takeaway: Open-API integration is becoming the standard—enabling secure commercial software to interact with DoD data is no longer a technical aspiration, but a policy directive.
Why It Matters: Legacy systems trap data in stovepipes, causing weeks of manual reconciliation. Recognition of this inefficiency presents an opportunity: open-API frameworks slash integration time—what once took months now takes days.
Decision Lens Delivers: Our software is built with interoperability at its core, leveraging open APIs to securely connect with existing systems and eliminate manual data transfer. This accelerates time-to-value and ensures planning is driven by real-time, trusted data.
Elevating Scenario-Based Planning Across the Lifecycle
Key Takeaway: The NDAA’s call to integrate “PPBE requirements and resourcing decisions with real-time, scenario-based information” puts what-if analysis front and center.
Why It Matters: Static spreadsheets no longer suffice
- Volume of alternatives: Hundreds of force-structure or budget profiles overwhelm manual methods.
- Dynamic risk: Emerging threats demand on-the-fly adjustments.
- Auditability: Manual annotations get lost; downstream stakeholders can’t trace decision rationales.
Decision Lens delivers:
- Automated simulations: Evaluate thousands of scenarios in minutes.
- Interactive analysis: Instantly see how a 5% cost overrun cascades through readiness accounts.
- Built-in commentary: Every trade-off, every assumption—captured, time-stamped, and exportable.
Integrating PPBE, GFM, and JCIDS for End-to-End Planning
Key Takeaway: The Chairman’s mark also directs the DoD to assess “opportunities for increased integration of Global Force Management (GFM), the PPBE process, and the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS).” Today, these tracks live in separate ecosystems. Tomorrow, they can be a seamless continuum.
Why It Matters: Siloed planning processes obscure the connections between strategic objectives, force structure, and budget execution. Without integration, trade-offs are made in isolation, and opportunities for alignment are missed.
Decision Lens Delivers:
- Unified data model: Link capability gaps (JCIDS) directly to force-management directives (GFM) and budget lines (PPBE).
- Traceable rationale: Tag every dollar request back to a joint-capabilities document.
- Holistic dashboards: Senior leaders gain a single pane of glass for strategy, force posture, and funding.
This end-to-end visibility fosters accountability, speed, and strategic alignment—exactly what Congress is demanding.
Elevating Combatant Commanders as PPBE Stakeholders
Key Takeaway: A standout enhancement in the FY 2026 mark is the directive to consult “the commanders of the combatant commands” in reshaping PPBE. Combatant Commanders (COCOMs) bring theater-specific insights crucial for realistic modeling.
Why It Matters: COCOMs have long operated at the edge of execution, but without a formalized input process, their insights risk being undervalued in resourcing decisions. Integrating their insights creates more resilient, operationally grounded plans.
How Decision Lens empowers COCOMs:
- Theater-centric variables: Integrate regional logistics constraints and threat-environment parameters.
- Dynamic war-game scenarios: Test near-peer conflict outcomes, surge deployments, or humanitarian missions.
- Shared dashboards: Ensure COCOMs, service headquarters, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) operate from the same trusted data.
By embedding COCOM voices in PPBE, organizations can build resilient, responsive resource-allocation frameworks that survive real-world complexity.
How to Turn Reform into Results
Championing Internal Change Agents
At Decision Lens, we know that strong internal champions are the linchpins of successful transformations. The NDAA’s emphasis on cross-organizational coordination underscores the need for empowered advocates who:
- Own the vision: They communicate strategic objectives and rally stakeholders.
- Demonstrate wins: Quick-win pilots with measurable metrics build momentum.
- Drive adoption: In-app commenting and dashboards give champions tangible tools to influence peers.
Actionable Next Steps: Leading the Charge from Mandate to Momentum
Even with clear direction from Congress, change is rarely easy. Planning modernization is not just about technology—it also requires cultural change. Inertia, misaligned processes, and resistance can stall progress. But by starting small, empowering champions, and demonstrating early wins, agencies can turn intent into impact. Here’s how to move forward:
- Map your current state. Catalog where PPBE, GFM, and JCIDS data lives and how it flows.
- Engage your champions. Identify finance, requirements, and COCOM leads to co-design use cases.
- Prototype with real data. Use Decision Lens’s open-API connectors to import a slice of your budgets and force-management data, then run scenario exercises.
- Capture and share wins. Document cycle-time reductions and stakeholder feedback to build the case for enterprise-wide rollout.
Ready to Meet the NDAA Mandate Ahead of Schedule?
There’s no better time than now to transform your decision-making. The FY 2026 NDAA lays out the “what” and the “how”—Decision Lens provides the “when.”
Let’s get started. Click here to sign up for a 15-minute demo.
NDAA Language
Reforming the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Process
The committee supports data-driven, scenario-based reforms that leverage commercial technologies to contribute to the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process, consistent with the recommendations of the Commission on PPBE Reform, authorized by section 1004 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117-81). The committee also recognizes the need for greater alignment between the Department of Defense’s force management, budgeting, and requirements determination processes to enhance efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and operational responsiveness.
The committee, therefore, directs the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the relevant organizations of the Department of Defense, the Secretaries of the military departments, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and in consultation with the commanders of the combatant commands, to submit a report to the congressional defense committees not later than March 31, 2026, that outlines the following:
(1) a description of how the Department would develop a framework to integrate PPBE requirements and resourcing decisions with real-time, scenario-based information;
(2) an explanation of how the Department can ensure data interoperability, including an open application programming interface (API) access, to enable secured commercial software to interact with data;
(3) opportunities for increased integration of Global Force Management (GFM), the PPBE process, and the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, including an assessment of the impact of full life-cycle costs on GFM decisions, as well as ways to enhance strategic prioritization; and
(4) an examination of the role of combatant commands in the PPBE process.
