Information
Assurance Forethought versus Afterthought
Simplifying
and Improving ADL Content Acquisition through Web-based Workflow Tools
The Science of
Learning, would you like a side order of Quality with that?
BRITISH ARMY
E-LEARNING: THE BENEFITS OF FOLLOWING THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE
Killing the
Big Bang -User Involved Simulation Development
Novel Business
Model Approach for Future JSIMS Acquisition
Technology
Insertion, Supportability and Obsolescence Management of PC-IG Systems
A Distributed
Systems Engineering Environment for Simulation Based Acquisition
Impacts Of
Naval Aviation Process Improvements On Training And Readiness
The Science of
Learning and Implications for Navy Learning Policy
Transforming A Schoolhouse
Lieutenant-Colonel H.J. Kowal, CD, rmc, BEng, MSAe,
MDS, PhD, PEng 16 Wing Borden, The
Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Technology and Engineering (CFSATE) provides ab initio
training to Air Technicians and Aerospace Engineers. In the mid 1990s, CFSATE
experienced significant downsizing commensurate with a reduced need for force
generation at the time. With a change in technician demographics, however,
CFSATE has been given the responsibility to increase production to keep pace
with current and forecasted needs of the aerospace maintenance community. An
Occupational Analysis of Air Technician Training identified a number of
deficiencies in course content and the practical abilities of the graduates.
The result has been a ignificant
training burden at the field because graduate apprentices do not possess the
necessary skill sets for them to progress to the journeyman level in a
reasonable amount of time. Selected as the Trainer of Choice, the Schoolhouse
has the challenge of designing, developing and implementing a new performance-oriented
training program that ensures the highest quality of training in support of
increased steady state requirements of the Canadian Air Force. Accordingly,
CFSATE has embarked upon a transformation to modernize classrooms and take
advantage of new technologies with the goal of ensuring individual training
and education is more effective and efficient. This
paper discusses CFSATE’s transformation from a
leadership perspective highlighting the challenges and successes and
identifying a number of lessons learned that could be applied to any
organization undergoing change. Although the transformation is not complete,
specific application of the Canadian Force Individual Training and Education
System (CFITES) Quality Control System process as it was applied to the
Aviation Course is presented. 2004 Paper No. 1512 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Information Assurance Forethought versus
Afterthought
Northrop Grumman Information Technology Northrop Grumman Information Technology Starting
in late 2002, the Department of Defense (DoD) and
the U.S. Army issued major regulatory guidance changes regarding Information
Assurance (IA), which have a major impact on the acquisition of automated
information systems (AIS) procured by the Department of Defense and it s
components. The paper will present the new regulatory guidance as it pertains
to the certification and accreditation (C&A) of U.S. Army automated
information systems. The terms "certification" and
"accreditation" will be defined as they pertain to fielding an
accredited AIS. The
paper will present the current methodology of incorporating IA into AIS
acquisitions to include the lack of IA requirements in RFPs
and resulting contracts, the "add-on" or "bolt-on"
approach to IA, and the cost and schedule impacts caused by this methodology.
The
paper will present a methodology to integrate IA into the AIS acquisition
process from the beginning. Included in this methodology is the concept of
defining the IA requirements in the RFP to preclude baseline or engineering
change requirements after contract award to add security to the program as an
afterthought, which is a major cost and schedule driver. The paper will also
present the DoD Information Technology Security
Certification and Accreditation Process (DITSCAP) compared to the normal
acquisition cycle process to depict how the two processes are related and how
IA applied as an afterthought or as aforethought affects the two processes. In
summary, the paper will contrast the two methodologies of incorporating IA
into AIS acquisitions. Additionally, the benefits of pursuing the new
methodology of integrating IA into AIS acquisitions versus the current
"add-on" approach will be presented. 2004 Paper No. 1932 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Simplifying and Improving ADL Content
Acquisition through Web-based Workflow Tools
Internal Revenue Service Steve Kerschenbaum, David Navari, Doug Penn VERTEX Solutions, Inc. Across
the Federal Government, organizations of various sizes are procuring
Web-based training (WBT) courseware to augment their traditional education
and training capabilities. Many organizations have discovered that these
acquisition projects require a unique combination of software development
discipline, instructional design expertise, and highly talented graphic
artistry. Benchmarking surveys show that costs, quality, and customer
satisfaction vary dramatically with these efforts. Wide variations in
customer satisfaction can be attributed to many divergent approaches to ADL
acquisition and procurement. Although the Department of Defense (DoD) has developed numerous specifications like
MIL-PRF-29612B for training products, acquisition guidance and support that
combines ADL acquisition business processes, technical specifications,
instructional design standards, and graphical user interface best practices
is not currently available. In
2003, the IRS developed a workflow-based electronic performance support
system to improve the ADL content acquisition and development process. This
system has helped to standardize these processes by linking all IRS technical
and instructional specifications by using a straightforward Web interface to
support the project manager from project planning through evaluation. The IRS
has received an EPSS Central Award for this initiative and has now partnered
with the ADL Colab to support DoD’s
desire to develop a similar product for its community. This
paper will examine the ADL acquisition process and the variables that
influence a successful acquisition. It will review existing DoD acquisition specifications and discuss approaches to
improve the acquisition process by standardizing the business process,
contracting specifications, and linking technical, instructional, and
interface specifications to the process. 2004 Paper No. 1792 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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The Science of Learning, would you like a
side order of Quality with that?
JIL Information
Systems, Inc. JIL Information
Systems, Inc. Quality – 1. The essential character of
something; 2. A distinguishing characteristic; 3. Superiority of kind; 4.
Degree or grade of excellence; 5 Degree to which a set of inherent
characteristics fulfills requirements. The
Science of Learning provides great insight upon which to build effective and
efficient courseware, but what about the development of that courseware? Is
there a way to develop instructionally sound courseware that meets prescribed
specifications to ensure portability and reusability while applying the ISO
9001:2000 quality standards to the development process? Some would argue that
doing this essentially reduces the development of courseware to a production
line process. Instructional Designers fear the loss of creativity and would
argue it can’t be done because they need free reign to apply the Science of
Learning. Industry would argue that applying standards would rob them of
their uniqueness and government personnel have a hard time understanding the
principles of ISO 9001:2000. Broken
down into its basic processes, the design and development of courseware IS a
production line process. Additionally,
it is well understood that the application of the ISO 9001:2000 model works
extremely well in a production environment. This paper discusses the
fundamentals of a quality management system as the business strategy for
production of instructionally sound courseware. More specifically: What is an
ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System and how can it be applied to
Courseware Design and Development. 2004 Paper No. 1761 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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BRITISH ARMY E-LEARNING: THE BENEFITS OF
FOLLOWING THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE
Major Dave Crome BEd (Hons) MSc AGC (ETS), Director of Individual Training (Army)’s Training
Advisory Group Upavon, Since
the bold recommendations of the Defence Training
Review of 1998, the British Army has, of necessity, adopted a pragmatic
approach to implementing the use of e-Learning for training and educating its
personnel. The
advantages that e-Learning purports to offer a large organisation
with a distributed workforce, especially in terms of cost savings, are very attractive.
To fully integrate e-Learning as a training option the Army developed an
e-Learning Strategy working in harmony with MoD
guidelines. Focusing on 5 lines of development - Funding, Courseware,
Management, People and Infrastructure - the e-Learning Strategy provided a
clear vision for e-Learning across the Army. However, the reality of
implementing each of the lines of development has been fraught with practical
difficulties & hurdles. The
authors argue that, with the benefit of hindsight, some of these obstacles
have actually proven advantageous to the organisation
as a whole and that far from being resisted, should be exploited. 2004 Paper No 1678 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Killing the Big Bang -User Involved
Simulation Development
HQ, TRADOC; TPO OneSAF Training
simulations have traditionally been developed through a “Big Bang” process
where the system proponent (i.e., the Combat Developer) provided the material
developer with a requirements document and program funding. The Materiel
(system) Developer then selected a prime contractor. The Prime would select
and direct their own subsidiary contractors. And
eventually, the Materiel Developer was given back, Voila’, a complete working
system, which, after technical testing, was handed over to the end user. The OneSAF program did something completely different. After
developing the requirements documents, the users’ representatives stayed
involved on a daily basis, were part of the source selection process, worked
day to day with the various contractors, and all in a government controlled
facility. 2004 Paper 1522 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Novel Business Model Approach for Future
JSIMS Acquisition
MAK
Technologies, Inc On
February 11-13, 2004 the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
(DUSD), Personnel and Readiness (P&R), in conjunction with Joint Forces
Command (JFCOM) and the Army Modeling and Simulation Office (AMSO), conducted
an “Industry Game” with invited guests from the government, defense
contractors, commercial product vendors, and video game companies. The
purpose of this industry game was to simulate a fictitious acquisition of a
replacement contract for the JSIMS program, and elicit feedback from industry
as to how they might bid such a contract. The desired result was insight into
novel new ideas that could assist the DoD in
obtaining the necessary JSIMS training capability, without repeating the
painful and expensive business model that the previous cancelled effort
succumbed to. Approximately
40 industry representatives were broken into 4 virtual corporations of
approximately 10 members each. These “corporations” were given a fictitious
draft request for proposal (RFP) to respond to. Over a 3-day period, the
teams each crafted a presentation that outlined how they would respond to
such RFP. Two of the teams represented classic large defense contractors, one
of the teams represented a software services company, and the last
represented a large video game publisher. The approach developed by the
software services company, named “Macrosystems” was
widely hailed as a novel, pragmatic, and transformational approach to
acquisition of large DoD simulation systems. This
paper describes this new approach to acquisition of simulation software
systems. This new business model, based on a similar model developed for the
DARPA DARWARS program, incentivizes and rewards
industry for lowering the cost and improving the quality of training. It also
maximizes competition and agility in responding to unknown training gaps, and
provides a natural mechanism for replacing obsolete components with
revolutionary surprise developments., and business
strategy issues. He is known for providing business model consulting on
various DoD programs. 2004 Paper No. 1876 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Meeting the Training Needs of Tomorrow’s
War Fighters Through High Level Acquisition (HLAq) Strategies
A
new generation of warriors and leaders, weaned on computer games, are
rewriting the 21st century play book for operations and training.
Soldiers formerly trained to win in classic tank battles are now training to
interact with tribal leaders who voice their grievances at gun point. Classic
point and shoot simulators are being challenged by emerging technologies that
will allow over one million players to simultaneously participate in rich
interactive experiences that include the cultural and ethnic diversities of
any Contemporary Operational Environment (COE). A simulation industry proud
of its heritage and evolutionary products is now being driven to compete with
the computer gaming community in order to responsively address the new
requirements that are emerging from the battlefield. Unfortunately,
even when critical requirements can be met with commercially available
technology, we often use acquisition strategies that take years to formalize
and decades to complete. In support of the Global War on Terrorism and the
ongoing transformation of the military, the acquisition community must
develop new strategies that match the pace of emerging technologies and the
diversity of our joint forces. This paper will provide a broad overview of
the fundamental paradigm shifts related to developing requirements,
integrating funding for operations and training, managing standards, and the
changes to the competitive process that must evolve in order for the acquisition
community to remain relevant and responsive to the future force. 2004
Paper No. 1659 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Technology Insertion, Supportability and
Obsolescence Management of PC-IG Systems
EDS EDS Component
technological obsolescence is a virtual certainty. A double-edged sword,
technological obsolescence is caused by technological advances that provide
improved performance in new components at relatively stable prices. That’s
not a bad thing. The essence of an effective supportability and technology
insertion approach is the ability to manage the effects of both obsolescence
and technology advancement to the advantage of the customer. While the
adoption of a true PC based Image Generation (PC-IG) commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) solution and information technology industry best practices provides
significant cost and capability advantages, it also requires a requisite
paradigm shift in the traditional approach to life cycle maintenance and
supportability management to be fully effective. The relatively short
technological half-life of certain component parts due to rapid technology
advances results in early technological obsolescence of fielded solutions.
This environment requires careful management techniques and well-defined
strategies to take optimal advantage of the situation without creating chaos
and a configuration management nightmare that would put warfighter
training at risk. The goal is to implement a supportability plan that will
take full advantage of the off-the-shelf hardware and software providing a
low cost, low risk, long life and high availability of the PC-IG systems. It
is impossible to absolutely predict the path of current and future technology
or components based upon that technology, but with a supportability and
technology insertion plan that blends various strategies the technology
evolution can be managed. A practical recommended approach to technology
insertion, supportability and obsolescence management will be presented along
with an example based on commercial graphics card technology. 2004 Paper No. 1670 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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A Distributed Systems Engineering
Environment for Simulation Based Acquisition
Northrop
Grumman, Inc. Northrop
Grumman, Inc. The
acquisition of training systems with an increasing dependency on
interoperability with other fielded systems presents new opportunities for
the government and contractors. As training systems move from development and
production into fielding, they are expected to be interoperable out of the
box. Standards and protocols only provide a limited amount of confidence that
interoperability is achievable, actual connectivity and testing prior to
delivery is preferable to reduce risk. This paper will present a methodology
for developing and maintaining a Distributed Systems Engineering Environment
(DSEE) for training systems. This simulation based acquisition approach
provides a capability to test system-wide concepts that previously were seen as
too risky. Successful anecdotes from an existing instance of the USAF
Distributed Mission Training (DMT) Development and Test Network (DTN) will be
balanced against lessons learned and recommendations for the future.
Foundation concepts for acquisition of diverse new training systems such as
the US Army’s Future Combat Systems, with affordable risk reduction through a
DSEE, will be presented. Increased performance of contractors and reduced
cost to the government will be discussed. 2004 Paper No. 1673 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Attorney-Client Privilege, Trade Secrets
And Discovery; Centuries Old Legal Rules Confront The Internet Age
PERSON
& CRAVER LLP Transmission
of business information by email has become the norm, and many business
people now use email reflexively, without thinking, even to transmit
attorney-client privileged communications and trade secret information. This
paper will examine the rapidly-developing state of the law in this area, and
the impact on government agencies’ and contractors’ rights from the use of
business email transmissions. From this analysis will follow company and
program management recommendations. Lawyers
now routinely warn their clients that under the rules that govern the
existence and waiver of legal privileges, email messages containing
attorney-client communications might not be protected by the privilege, and
might have to be provided to an adversary during the litigation discovery
process. This paper will examine whether there are any ac tual
court decisions that decide this issue, and on what bases, or whether these
types of warnings are just so much legal hand-wringing. This
paper will also analyze whether transmission of a company’s trade secrets by
unencrypted email would operate to waive trade secret protection. A
third aspect of email use that bears discussion is that the informality of
the medium invites candor and improvident use of language in communication. People
write flip, informal and even scandalous things in email that they would
never put down in a “formal” memorandum. These types of emails can quickly
turn a promising lawsuit into a loser. This paper will discuss this
phenomenon and the rules of discovery that make such communications available
to one’s adversaries, and offer recommendations for agency or company email
policies to prevent this from happening. Finally,
the paper will address appropriate email retention policies for the
simulation and training industry, and the need to avoid “spoliation” (e.g.,
the destructi on of evidence), particularly in
light of the recent Sarbanes-Oxley Act. 2004 Paper No. 1507 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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Impacts Of Naval Aviation Process
Improvements On Training And Readiness
Captain
Thomas J. Donovan, USN (Ret), Major Steven D. Preda, USMC (Ret.) CACI
AB, Inc. With
the end of the Cold War a new focus grew within Naval Aviation, namely, management
of a Department of Defense-directed downsizing initiative. By the late
1990’s, Naval Aviation pulled out of the dive and took stock of the current
level of readiness. The ensuing analysis identified near and long-term
challenges within the training and readiness arena. Notable among the
challenges were backlogs of aviators trapped in training tracks and a
deteriorating ability to attain fleet squadron and airwing
training readiness objectives during the inter-deployment training cycle
(IDTC). To
address these challenges, the initial Naval Aviation response was to request
more funding which, unfortunately, was not forthcoming. A fundamental new
approach was required to garner the greatest return from existing resources.
To address these challenges Naval Aviation leadership initiated the Naval
Aviator Production Process Improvement (NAPPI) initiative and the Naval
Aviation Readiness Integrated Improvement Program (NAVRIIP). Both
programs drove dramatic changes in Naval Aviation’s management approach that
focused on improving the aviator and IDTC readiness production processes. New
working relationships across Naval Aviation and supporting organizations were
forged through common, well-defined and measurable goals. Both NAPPI and
NAVRIIP required training to familiarize key personnel with the programs and
to begin the institutionalization of the new management approach implicit in
these programs. Because of results since implementation of these programs,
training requirements have grown significantly. The
paper will provide an overview of the NAPPI and NAVRIIP programs, their
history, underlying philosophy and strategy for process improvement, key
architectural features and results of their implementation. Detail on NAPP’s evolution and responses to changing training
requirements will be followed by a discussion of NAPP metrics, their
management complexity in applying them to readiness and training. The paper
will conclude with near-term training recommendations followed by a “way
ahead” discussion for additional training. 2004 Paper No. 1490 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S
Website. |
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The Science of Learning and Implications
for Navy Learning Policy
NAVAIR
NAVAIR
One
goal of the Navy’s Revolution in Training is to apply the “Science of
Learning” to improve the performance of the Warfighter.
The Science of Learning is often spoken of as if it is a “thing” that can be purchased
off-the-shelf, but in reality it is a body of knowledge about learning that
has been derived by application of the scientific method. The scientific
method has been used for over two hundred years to derive empirical data
about the way people learn, the way they remember, and the way their
performance can be improved through the application of sound learning
principles. Leaders can apply the Science of Learning to improve human
performance in day-to-day Navy operations by using empirical data to make
learning decisions rather than relying solely upon expert “opinions.” Like
any area of science, the Science of Learning has its own experts. Just as the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration looks to experts to help them
design rockets and review the work of others, experts in human learning can
help policy-makers develop Science of Learning policy. Although it is
unreasonable to expect every leader in the Navy to be a “learning scientist,”
each leader can be taught the basic principles of the Science of Learning,
and the context in which it should be applied in the decision-making process.
However, to make this a reality it will be necessary to implement the
organizational structures to insure that the Science of Learning is a key
consideration in Navy operations. If this is not done, then there will likely
be misapplication and misinterpretation of Science of Learning principles
with potentially serious consequences. A human performance decision support
system could be developed and implemented by the Navy to ensure solid
decision-making by leaders about learning and performance issues. 2004 Paper No. 1539 This paper is available on
the 2004 I/ITSEC CD ROM. Order it from I/ITSEC'S Website. |
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