CARSON, Calif. - Fifteen Defense Contract Management Agency employees recently became the first group in the agency to complete the Program Integrator Workshop course - ENG102.
The four-and-a-half-day course included Karron Small, Engineering and Analysis Directorate executive director, presenting awards to the workshop development team during the recent E&A Western Regional Command town hall meeting at the region’s headquarters.
“Initial feedback was extremely positive,” Small said. “The course is designed in modular format for flexibility to allow for the incorporation of new policy changes from OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense].”
Joe “Mickey” Carter, E&A Operations research analyst, along with two other E&A employees and five personnel from contract management offices, worked for a year to develop the content in response to the need for the program integrator community to be able to implement the agency’s major program support policy. Course participants take a pre-test and a post-test to assess what they learned. Those who complete the course earn 36 continuous learning points.
Talking about the pilot course recently presented at Carson, Calif., Carter said, “This was the field test. Because of the nature of the workshop, face-to-face is the best.”
The workshop is the first DCMA-specific course directed at program integrators, who are the primary DCMA representatives to the Program Manager for Major Defense Acquisition Programs, Acquisition Category, or ACAT, I and ACAT II or other Department of Defense acquisition programs, OSD and DCMA senior leadership designate.
The PI also leads program support teams comprised of functional experts including but not limited to engineers, quality assurance specialists, industrial specialists and contracting personnel. PIs assess contractor performance, predict future performance and make actionable recommendations related to future programmatic efforts.
E&A is working with the agency’s Workforce Development team to offer eight workshops this fiscal year and additional workshops during FY 13, according to Carter who said, “The course will change as policy and DCMA change.”
Regarding the course, Small said, “We look forward to continuing to present this material and enhance its contents to meet the needs of the PI community."