10.13. Acquisition Visibility
In 2007, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics) (USD(AT&L)) started an initiative to achieve Acquisition Visibility (AV) within the Department of Defense (DoD). AV is defined as having timely access to accurate, authoritative, and reliable information supporting acquisition oversight, accountability, and decision making throughout the Department for effective and efficient delivery of warfighter capabilities. AV began as a concept in early 2008 with a demonstration of data governance and Service Oriented Architecture to support major weapons system decision-making.
Five years later, the technology framework and governance process has solidified, providing the Defense Acquisition Community with a capability that supports management of Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) and Major Automated Information System (MAIS) programs. It is a capability that:
- Captures acquisition data from the Military Departments and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD);
- Federates that data through a single interface; and
- Publishes this information through web-services where a customer can access the appropriate information for his or her reporting or tracking requirements.
Currently, over 180 data elements are used to provide acquisition system information that is compartmentalized into seven major categories: earned value management, unit cost, budget, milestones, sustainment, science and technology, and program administration. AV is now entering into a phased-production environment and working to increase the number of data elements (totaling approximately 500) available to the AV capability which will bring additional, relevant data to our decision makers.
AV continues to mature in providing a range of value-added data services supporting acquisition management and oversight. Objectives are to:
- Expand the use and functionality of AV Capabilities;
- Automate data quality validation and verification processes;
- Align technically to the strategic goals of the DoD’s Chief Information Officer;
- Provide additional program coverage;
- Provide an acquisition documentation repository; and
- Encompass a range of relevant data sets to support acquisition management and oversight.
Questions regarding the AV project should be directed to the Office of Enterprise Integration and OSD Studies (within the Office of the Director, Acquisition Resources and Analysis).
10.13.1. Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR)
The Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) system creates a net-centric environment to provide data transparency of acquisition management information to the Department of Defense. DAMIR provides:
- Full web-services data exchange with Components' acquisition information systems for Defense Acquisition Executive Summary (DAES) information and Program/Budget Review (P/BR) (formerly known as the Program Objective Memorandum (POM)) information;
- web applications that allow Components to input Selected Acquisition Report (SAR), Acquisition Program Baseline (APB), Major Automated Information System (MAIS) Annual Report (MAR), and the DAES data, making DAMIR the authoritative source for the SAR, APB, and MAR information;
- Analytical tools that enable users to customize the way they search, view, and display previously unavailable combinations of information electronically; and
- Workflow and collaboration capabilities.
Based upon an Office of the Secretary of Defense enterprise decision, use of the DAMIR system is mandatory for all Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) and all MAIS programs and must be employed to satisfy statutory requirements for SAR and MAR submissions and the APB. Non-MDAP and non-MAIS programs may also use the system.
The Director, Acquisition Resources and Analysis, has responsibility for the development, upgrade, and maintenance of the DAMIR system. The DAMIR system includes instructions for preparing the APB, the SAR, the MAR, the DAES, the Unit Cost Report, and the P/BR submission (referred to in the DAMIR system as “POM”), including administrative procedures. User help can be obtained through the following sources:
DAMIR mailboxes (damir@caci.com for technical and functional support or damir@osd.mil for account administration support)
10.13.1.1. Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) Acquisition Program Baselines (APBs)
The DAMIR system is the authoritative source for all APBs. APBs for Acquisition Category (ACAT) I and IA programs must be created and released using the DAMIR system. The DAMIR system provides the data entry capability and required workflow to create and edit an APB. An APB is approved within the DAMIR system when a formal signature page with the Milestone Decision Authority’s signature is acquired--at this point, the APB can no longer be edited. The APB Objectives and Thresholds will also be visible within both the Selected Acquisition Report and Defense Acquisition Summary (DAES) views in the DAMIR Purview Program View module. The full Web Services data exchange with the Components’ acquisition information systems: Army (Acquisition Information Management), Navy (Dashboard), and Air Force (System Metric and Reporting Tool) also allows the Components to pull the official APBs into their respective systems to use in their respective DAES processes.
10.13.1.2. Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) Selected Acquisition Reports (SARs)
The DAMIR system is the authoritative source for SARs and provides the data entry capability and required workflow to create and edit a SAR. The computational model capability is also integrated into the DAMIR SAR module. DAMIR provides extensive data checks, ensuring that a SAR is not released to Congress with critical errors. [NOTE: Acquisition Program Baseline (APB) values are pulled from the APB module and cannot be edited within the SAR.] All Major Defense Acquisition Programs are required to use DAMIR to prepare the annual and quarterly SARs. Hard copy SARs are no longer submitted to Congress. Instead, Congress is granted access to the SAR information through DAMIR. The only exception is when the SAR contains classified information. In those few cases, a hard-copy classified annex is submitted.
10.13.1.3. Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) Major Automated Information System (MAIS) Annual Reports (MARs)
The DAMIR system is the authoritative source for MARs and provides the data entry capability and required workflow to create and edit a MAR. All MAIS programs are required to use the DAMIR system to prepare the annual MARs. The DAMIR MAR Module supports both Baselined and Unbaselined MAIS programs. The DAMIR system provides extensive data checks, ensuring that a MAR is not released to Congress with critical errors. Historical MARs (December 2008 – December 2010) will be stored in PDF format in DAMIR “Acquisition Documents.”
For Baselined MARs, a MAR Original Estimate (OE) module is provided; the MAR OE will be automatically pulled into the MAR by the DAMIR system. The MAR OE can be initialized from the APB. Hard copy MARs are no longer submitted to Congress. Instead, Congress is granted access to the MAR information through the DAMIR system.
10.13.1.4. Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) Defense Acquisition Executive Summary (DAES)
To improve information sharing and to reduce duplicate data entry, DAES information is now obtained either via Web Services data exchange between the Components' acquisition information systems and the DAMIR system or directly via the DAMIR “Create or Edit DAES Report” module. Major Automated Information System programs that are not Component-specific must enter all DAES information directly into the DAMIR system. (The action in the data exchange between the DAMIR system and the Component systems is referred to as a “push”; DAES data is pushed to the DAMIR system via Web Services on a monthly/quarterly basis.) DAES information is required to be submitted for all Acquisition Category (ACAT) I and IA programs using one of the previously mentioned collection methods.
Acquisition Program Baseline (APB) values displayed in the DAES/Web Services view are pulled directly from the APB module and cannot be updated via web services. In addition to the Currently Approved APB Objectives and Thresholds, for reference only, the DAMIR DAES submission will also show the Initial Phase Objectives and Thresholds, if applicable.
Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Assessments against the quarterly pushed Program Managers’ Assessments are created in the DAMIR “DAES Review” module. Each organization has the ability to rate a program on any of the eleven indicators. OSD Assessments are visible in the DAMIR system the month after the Program Manager’s assessments are submitted.
Two unclassified supplemental Microsoft Word Power Point briefing slides (Issues Summary and Risk Summary.) must be submitted with the quarterly DAES submission. For those programs selected to be on the monthly DAES Meeting Agenda, an additional eleven slides must also be submitted. The list of thirteen (total) required slides is:
- Program Information
- Overview
- Issues/Help Needed
- Schedule
- Cost and Quantity
- Quad Chart
- Earned Value
- Risk Summary
- Interrelationships, dependencies, and Synchronization with Complementary Systems
- Sustainment
- Better Buying Power
- International Program Aspects
- O&M and O&S Crosswalk Chart
When received, these slides are loaded into the DAMIR “Acquisition Document” module by the DAMIR administrative support staff. Access to DAES information is based on approved permissions.
10.13.1.5. Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) Ad hoc Reports
The DAMIR “Ad hoc Reports” module provides a capability for cross-program analysis. Access to completed reports is permission based, but all users have access to SARs and SAR Ad hoc reports.
Users may request a report, or a query, of the DAMIR system database by sending an e-mail message to damir@osd.mil. Results from report requests will be added to the long-standing Ad hoc report list; results from queries are a one-time data dump into an excel spreadsheet and will not be turned into an ad hoc report unless specifically requested.
10.13.1.6 Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) Portfolio View
The DAMIR “Portfolio View” module provides a cross-program analytical capability much like that of the DAMIR “Ad hoc Reports” module with the addition of graphical representations of the data. The DAMIR system software presents both dashboard and detailed views of Selected Acquisition Report data or Defense Acquisition Executive Summary data in the form of tables, charts, and graphs. The data presented in these views is based on portfolios of identified programs. The DAMIR system supports several standard portfolios that are accessible to all users. The standard portfolios allow the user to view data for all programs or for only those programs related to a specific Component. Users are also able to create personal portfolios that reference only specific programs that they identify. Any of these portfolios may then be used to create the portfolio views relevant to these programs. The DAMIR “Portfolio View” module also allows the user to customize their dashboard views uniquely, so that the user is presented with only those charts and graphs which are most useful to their inquiry. The ability to see draft and unofficial information is permission-based.
10.13.1.7. Integrated Program/Budget Review Data Submissions
During the first phase in the annual budget cycle, the Office of the Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (D, CAPE) and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (USD(C)) are responsible for conducting an annual Integrated Program/Budget Review (P/BR) on all Department of Defense (DoD) resources and require an annual Integrated Program/Budget data submission from all DoD Components.
The Components are also required to submit supplemental Program/Budget Review (P/BR) data on their Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) and Major Automated Information System (MAIS) programs. This supplemental submission of MDAP and MAIS data supports the efforts of the MDAP transparency study initially directed in the Fiscal Year 2011 Integrated Program Review Resource Management Directive 700 study and provides the details necessary to assess the status of programs.
Data shall be submitted for all current MDAPs and MAIS programs, as well as acquisition program concepts and Unbaselined MAIS programs that will achieve Milestone B prior to the end of the calendar year, or have been certified under the provisions of section 2366a of title 10 United States Code. The MDAP and MAIS program data shall include all acquisition costs (RDT&E, Procurement, MILCON, Acquisition O&M, Working Capital Funds, or Other Financing with an explanation) and MDAP quantities (RDT&E and Procurement) for the full acquisition cycle of each MDAP and each MAIS program (by fiscal year and funding appropriation). For MAIS programs, the total life-cycle cost is the development cost plus ten years of Operation and Support (O&S) costs following Full Deployment declaration. For MDAP programs, the full acquisition lifecycle and associated funding is defined by the D, CAPE and USD(C) annual Integrated Program/Budget Submission Guidance.
All MDAPs and MAIS programs shall submit annual P/BR data that has been coordinated with and approved by the appropriate Component Acquisition Executive (CAE) into their Component’s acquisition information system. For efficient information sharing, the CAE systems shall publish P/BR data to Acquisition Visibility (AV) using the Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) system Web Services. Components without access to one of the Component acquisition information systems shall use the DAMIR “Create or Edit a Budget Report” module. Notwithstanding the method of transmission, exposure, or publication, the CAE-approved P/BR data shall be available for consumption by AV and AV subscribers as determined by annual guidance.
All MDAPs shall submit P/BR data at the sub-program level and all MAIS programs shall submit at the increment level as appropriate, consistent with the Track-to-Budget rules established for the data submission to the Program Resources Collection Process (PRCP), per the program/budget transparency requirements of the Fiscal Year Integrated Program/Budget Submission Guidance.
MDAPs and MAIS programs whose schedules have changed due to funding and quantity changes in the P/BR submission shall report estimated program schedule changes. A limited number of large MDAP and MAIS programs may be required to provide P/BR revision data periodically during the Integrated P/BR. For programs so designated, revisions driven by the MDAP Issue Review Team or by any other direction shall cover the same data included with the original transmission and will be maintained by the responsible Component.
Components shall also review their acquisition program budgets, and ensure RDT&E Program Element funding is reflected in the RDT&E budget activity that aligns with the program's acquisition phase as defined in DoD Instruction 5000.02.
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