At U.S. Army Program Executive Office Enterprise, which is now over two years into its Agile transformation, several enterprise software programs are already in the execution phase of the DOD’s Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP), which is designed to facilitate rapid and iterative delivery of software capability to users. Those programs include Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence, Foreign Military Sales – Army Case Execution System and the Accessions Information Environment (AIE).
This year, two of AIE’s sister programs within PEO Enterprise’s Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army (IPPS-A) portfolio are bound for the pathway. The sister programs have vastly different missions and SWP approaches but are looking to each other and other PEO Enterprise programs for best practices and lessons learned as they approach the critical execution phase.
Brand-new program starts from ground up in SWP
For Fort Detrick, Maryland-based Operational Medicine Information Systems – Army (OMIS-A), the execution phase decision point for the SWP will come just over one year after the program was chartered.
On Apr. 12, 2024, PEO Enterprise formally established OMIS-A to revolutionize operational health information technology following the disestablishment of the program’s predecessor, Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care. “This next chapter for OMIS-A will be anchored in the word ‘Agile,’” said then-IPPS-A Project Manager Col. RJ Mikesh, who was promoted to brigadier general in August 2024 and currently serves as PEO Enterprise's deputy program executive officer. “The word Agile will absolutely be used to define software development, but it will also define how we adapt to changing requirements or pivot to revised Army priorities.”
Over the past year, the OMIS-A team has been busy starting up the new program — which aims to modernize the Army’s electronic health record software capabilities to operational Soldiers worldwide — as well as implementing Agile processes and preparing to stand up in the SWP.
According to the program’s operations officer Angela Price, OMIS-A has already completed its cost analysis requirements description, which describes the acquisition program. Now the team is in the process of developing its cost position, which explains the financial requirements for executing its mission in the SWP. Once that’s finished, OMIS-A will meet with the new or acting Army Acquisition Executive for approval to move into execution; that meeting is tentatively slated for Apr. 29.
“Right now, we’re getting our documentation staffed and adjudicated with ASA(ALT) [Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology] and working on signature processes,” said Price. “Overall, with the Army’s move to Agile and ASA(ALT)’s embrace, the timing is good because we’re making all these changes at once. With new memos and guidance coming out weekly, we’re having to embrace the whole Agile methodology. This is not just about software development — We’re having to adapt to changing policies. It’s keeping us sharp. We’re stretching our brains every day.”
Army’s largest business ERP moves to SWP
It’s been just over two years since the Army rolled out its online human resources platform known as IPPS-A R3 to more than 1.1 million Soldiers. That tremendous endeavor provided Soldiers with a modernized HR system in which they can see and transmit their data via a mobile application.
Since then, the IPPS-A Increment II product office at PEO Enterprise has transitioned to Agile software development and has begun operating as if it were already under the SWP, according to IPPS-A Inc II product manager Lt. Col. Ryan Martin. He said the Army’s former acquisition executive, Douglas Bush, directed the acquisition program to transition from the Defense Business System (DBS) Pathway to the Software Acquisition Pathway shortly before he left office in February.
“Doing Agile in the Army’s largest software program is a challenge,” said Martin. “But it’s critically important because it’s a large and impactful program, and if you can prove it can be done there, you can do it anywhere. The SWP provides the authorities and programmatic structure to really leverage industry best practices and modern software development techniques, which are critical for delivering value to users at the pace of relevance, especially in a system as complex and sprawling as the Army’s personnel and pay system.”
Martin believes it’s worth tackling the challenges to provide better capability to Soldiers. “IPPS-A Inc II has so many different data trading partners we have to interact with,” he said. “It’s the type of environment that quickly lends itself to slow, bureaucratic cycle times. The SWP drives us to approach quick-turn cycle times delivering software that still is relevant by the time it hits the user. I’d argue that the more complex and bureaucratic your environment is, the more important it is to force Agile processes in your development model.”
Currently, the IPPS-A Inc II team is aligning its documentation with its working practices and actively working on its cost analysis requirements description, which Martin admitted is a “big lift” since the prior description was based on legacy waterfall practices. Once that’s done, the team will work closely this summer with the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Cost & Economics) on the program’s cost position. In December, IPPS-A Inc II is scheduled to meet with the AAE for approval to move into the execution phase of the SWP.
Information-sharing for SWP success
PEO Enterprise programs have been doing what they can to support each other’s successful emergence in the SWP.
“AIE went through it first,” said Price, “so they have lessons learned. We’re hoping we can squeak through a little easier.”
Most of the information that’s shared among programs comes via PEO Enterprise’s Acquisition Innovation Directorate (AID), which enables program teams to view each other’s documents. In early 2024, the AID team collaborated with four PEO Enterprise DBS programs to quickly get their SWP documentation ready for the execution phase decision point with the AAE.
PEO Enterprise’s top leader is pleased that the acquisition organization is ahead of the game in adopting the SWP as the DOD’s and Army’s preferred pathway for software development programs.
“The good news is that we are well ahead given that many of our programs are leveraging SWP,” said PEO Enterprise Program Executive Officer Bill Hepworth.
SOURCE: Army.mil, https://www.army.mil/article/283997/two_vastly_different_army_programs_prepare_for_software_acquisition_pathway