Why a Manpower and Force Management Professional Should Attend SRMC

FORT BELVOIR, VA, UNITED STATES

06.26.2017

Story by Cory Hancock 

U.S. Army Career Program 26

**By: Erin Patacsil, Senior Management Analyst, U.S. Army Manpower Analysis Agency, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Department of the Army Civilians serving in Manpower and Force Management (CP26) positions have a variety of analytic skills and techniques to facilitate developing sound and timely recommendations for decision makers in our Army. I recently graduated from the Senior Resource Managers Course (SRMC). Conducted by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, the goal of SRMC is to help students better understand the dynamic resource management environment facing the Department of the Army and Department of Defense.

The SRMC is also a forum for senior resource managers to discuss issues and share solutions. Students of this recent session of SRMC included Civilian Comptrollers (CP11) and Military Comptroller Officers (Functional Area 45). Also among the students were three Manpower and Force Management Professionals (CP26). This article will briefly explain how the class benefited from having the perspective of CP26 civilians attend as well as outline the insights gained from attending SRMC.

Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Mark Milley, stated, that readiness is the number one priority. Most students of SRMC serve in various positions that seek to ensure our Army has sufficient resources to fight and win the Nation’s wars. With almost two decades of reliance on Global War on Terror and Overseas Contingency Operations funds, the attendees of SRMC tried to address some of the Army's current challenges to resource a trained and ready force. The Manpower and Force Management professionals were able to provide unique insights and perspectives to the resource managers in the course concerning force structure, workload and functional analyses. These insights and perspectives assisted in the development of recommendations to enable resource informed decisions.

As a Senior Management Analyst at the United States Army Manpower Analysis Agency (USAMAA), I partner with the Resource Integration Directorate of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA (ALT)) to help validate manpower requirements to resource within the acquisition community. Army Acquisition professionals work to provide Soldiers a decisive advantage in any mission and to develop, acquire, field and sustain the world's best equipment and services to meet current and future Army needs. One of the analytic tools used in my work with acquisition stakeholders is the Predictive Resource Staffing Model (PRSM), which prioritizes critical skills and plans future workforce requirements years in advance.

PRSM is a suite of manpower models used to forecast manpower requirements across the Army acquisition community. Senior leaders can use the PRSM results to inform Army planning processes, including the Program Objective Memorandum (POM). For example, ASA (ALT) developed PRSM Program Management (PRSM PM) with eight Program Executive Offices and USAMAA validated PRSM PM for use to inform POM planning. ASA (ALT) is also developing PRSM Contracting, PRSM Logistics, PRSM Research & Development, and PRSM TEST to provide manpower requirements determination across the entire acquisition community.

During SRMC, I shared my experiences with PRSM and lessons learned from using the model with my colleagues –many of whom had not heard of PRSM. What I found by the end of the course was that my experience in HQDA G-3/5/7 Force Management and at USAMAA coupled with my colleague's CP26 experience from the United States Army Force Management Support Agency made us a very powerful team. We were able to contribute to class and group discussions as we explored solutions to our Army's resourcing issues. As Manpower and Force Management analysts, we understood the Army’s process and were able to explain the importance of “getting it right” during the requirements phase.

We explained to our resource management colleagues that before they can allocate resources, they must first have authorizations to compete in the Program Evaluation Groups. Once HQDA G-3/5/7 approves the USAMAA validated PRSM suite of manpower models, PRSM models will significantly reduce reliance on concept plans, ultimately increasing competitive edge for authorizations. Once PRSM derives the minimum essential manpower requirements by Unit Identification Code (UIC), the acquisition community can request G-3/5/7 approval of the requirements in order to compete for authorization in the Total Army Analysis (TAA) process.

This is just one example of the invaluable lessons learned that I gained as a CP26 attending the Senior Resource Manager Course. As a SRMC graduate, I am better prepared to assist my mission partners from the acquisition community.

• Date Taken: 06.26.2017
• Date Posted: 06.26.2017 11:56
• Story ID: 239170
• Location: FORT BELVOIR, VA, US
• Hometown: FORT BELVOIR, VA, US