IT unveils acronym translator

FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. -

As a result of a recent in-house Information Technology contest, Defense Contract Management Agency employees now have access to a business dictionary-like reference tool to assist them with key terms directly related to the missions of the agency and the Department of Defense.

The DCMA Information Dictionary received second place at the IT Training Summit Innovation Contest Aug. 15, which encouraged IT professionals to demonstrate their abilities to drive innovation and continuous improvement within the agency. The winning DCMA IT Enterprise Architecture team comprised Joseph Lowe, data architect and team lead; Sabrina Francis, business architect; Larry Hairston, technology architect; and Keith Young, security architect.

The team used artificial intelligence to capture publicly releasable policy information to develop the dictionary as a dashboard for agency use. Two of the main goals were creating a single location to review key terms and the ability to quickly reference and understand unfamiliar terms and DCMA directives.

"We used a Power BI report that resembles a business dictionary consisting of seven reports that enable users to filter and view official DCMA, DOD, Federal Acquisition Regulation, and National Institute of Standards and Technology terms, definitions, acronyms and references," said Lowe. "We manually extracted data over a period of six months from over 660 documents including more than 28 thousand rows of data that defines over two thousand unique terms and acronyms, and nearly two thousand unique references."

Henry Chambers, DCMA IT Strategy and Planning Division's chief enterprise architect, said this dashboard is the first effort of its kind to list all these values sourced directly from policy.

"The ability to filter terminology across relationships between capabilities and policies makes this a powerful and comprehensive tool," he said. "The dictionary has already been accessed 400 times over the past month despite it not being widely publicized."

Each member of the EA team had specific roles in bringing the dictionary to life. As the business architect, some of Francis' tasks included assisting in identifying any disconnects in policy and providing context for what the definitions of "operational activity," "activities" and "processes" should be relative to enterprise architecture. She also validated that the product could assist agency stakeholders if questions about taxonomy come up.

"It sounds complicated, but the dashboard is actually very user-friendly," said Francis. "For example, you can pick a filter on the left-hand navigation such as 'DCMA Acronyms' then search the words in alphabetic order. Let's say you pick the term 'ACQDemo' from the list. The filter will show you all the different possible names for that acronym plus any related capabilities and policies related to the term. You can bookmark your searches and share them as well."

As team lead, Lowe set the goals and objectives for the project and worked closely with his team to ensure the gathered information met their collective requirements. His specific tasks included developing the report using Power BI, which is a business intelligence platform designed to help analyze and visualize raw data into actionable information. He also extracted and organized the terms, definitions, acronyms and references from DCMA policy.

"Ontologies define a common vocabulary shared across the agency," said Lowe. "The combination of the information used by the business capabilities and their relationships comprise the enterprise ontology. I'm proud to say our approach to documenting organizational information for enterprise architectural purposes will be presented to DOD, other federal agencies, and industry in the coming months."

Those who have served under DOD in any capacity are no strangers to the concept of acronyms and abbreviations. Andy Bradshaw, DCMA's Total Force Directorate Policy Branch supervisor, said he and his team are the keepers of TF's policy issuances, so it's important for them to have ready access to acronyms and definitions.

"We used an internal Excel spreadsheet to track a lot of these things before this dictionary was developed," said Bradshaw. "There are so many DOD and DCMA unique acronyms, and new ones are always being developed that we're often asking, 'what does XXXX stand for?' Then we go on a rabbit hunt trying to figure it out, and at times there is more than one meaning. The DCMA Information Dictionary saves us a lot of time and frustration in determining acronyms and their definitions. It's a great tool for us, and it will be a great asset for new agency employees as well."

Hairston, who has over 11 years of experience in enterprise architecture, said although the dictionary is a great tool as-is, he does foresee improvements and additions in the future.

"The goal is to unify the language across all agency policies and procedural manuals so everyone speaks the same language," he said. "We are constantly seeking ways of improving communication across the agency by engaging in conversations, learning as much as we can and sharing our knowledge."

From a security perspective, Young said it's imperative to prioritize the information dictionary's security architecture to fully realize its benefits while minimize risks.

"This dashboard is a prime example of how we can communicate the definition of cybersecurity practices like zero trust and identity, credentialing and access management while maintaining a consistent understanding of key terms and acronyms used across the agency and DOD," he said.

Lowe said the next step is to automate the process of adding new terms, definitions, acronyms and references for policy updates to ensure the dictionary remains current.

DCMA employees can view a demonstration video prior to accessing the DCMA information Dictionary (employee login required for both links).

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.