SCES Marks Success with Business Capability Lifecycle (BCL)
Enterprise Integration and
Enterprise Planning & Investment Directorates
Business Transformation Agency
March 25, 2009
Arlington, Va. – The Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) and Business Transformation Agency (BTA) have partnered to develop an approach to define, design, develop, field and implement a Security Cooperation Enterprise Solution (SCES). The mission of the SCES effort is to improve visibility, accuracy and availability of case execution data across the Security Cooperation community.
The SCES team consists of representatives from DSCA, BTA and the military departments (MILDEPs). Within BTA, the Enterprise Integration Directorate is serving as the SCES Program Management Office (PMO) in partnership with DSCA. The team is supported by the Enterprise Planning & Investment Directorate (EP&I), as SCES moves through the Business Capability Lifecycle process (BCL).
The SCES team presented its problem statement to the Combined Investment Review Board (IRB) in mid-November. The successful presentation marked a key milestone in the joint effort between DSCA, BTA and the MILDEPs. At the November briefing to the Combined IRB, the IRB committee members approved SCES to move forward, acknowledging SCES' importance to DoD and the Security Cooperation community.
SCES leadership has voluntarily adopted the BCL approach developed by BTA to address long-standing challenges impacting the delivery of defense business capabilities across DoD. SCES is not required to use BCL because of the size of the effort. However, they chose to adopt BCL and go before the IRB to leverage DoD best business practices and maintain DoD buy in and support. SCES' intent is to use the IRB as an adviser, best practice and risk mitigator to evolving Enterprise Resource Planning program developments.
"They wanted to come before the IRB because that's the group that makes decisions which implement business capabilities," said Brannan Chisolm, BCL Support Division Chief for EP&I. "They view this as building a potential solution that is scalable across the enterprise."
The process leading to the IRB approval took an estimated 30–45 days. This rapid decision time is one of the results of streamlining the acquisition process through BCL, which is designed to speed delivery of capabilities to the warfighter. Although BCL concepts for business Major Automated Information Systems and Major Defense Acquisition Programs have been followed since 2006, to date only a few programs have gone through the BCL process from the beginning,
"Using the BCL approach in creating the SCES problem statement was more than developing a document," said Claire Evans, SCES Program Manager. "It was also about engaging the team and leadership across DSCA and three services to agree on the business problem we're trying to solve. In the process we were forced to ask some tough questions and brainstorm the fundamental issues facing the community. In doing so, the SCES team was challenged to take a new approach to defining the SCES business system solution – one that focused on the very real business problem and governance issues, and challenges the assumption that a materiel technology solution is the answer to solving the community's business and organizational problems. This is a major part of the overall value the BCL brings to transformational efforts such as SCES."
The BCL consists of three phases: Business Capability Definition, Investment Management and Execution. The initial phase, Business Capability Definition, focuses on thorough analysis to identify the problem the customer is looking to solve through the upcoming acquisition and identify the desired outcomes. A key milestone in this phase is a document known as the Problem Statement. The Problem Statement’s objective is to clearly articulate and define the business problem the customer is looking to solve.
Efforts to meet the need for BCL education and awareness are in the works. BTA is collaborating with the Defense Acquisition University to launch training and classes on BCL.