Critical homework will help DCMA find balance

After months of preparation, the Defense Contract Management Agency kicked off a third-party independent enterprise manpower study this week.

The DCMA Manpower Requirements and Staffing Analysis is a 15-18 month initiative to provide an independent, comprehensive assessment of manpower requirements for core functions.

"The agency's ability to accurately quantify requirements through analysis is crucial to define the optimal manning levels, which balances resources between workload and workforce," said Dr. Cherry Wilcoxon, executive director of Financial and Business Operations and agency comptroller. "The study findings will help DCMA improve the alignment of constrained resources with Defense Department critical mission priorities, while simultaneously allowing leadership to articulate and quantify the impact and risk to external stakeholders and decision makers."

Confronting constrained resources is not new to DCMA. According to Air Force Col. John Artis, the agency's military chief of staff, "DCMA has had resource challenges for years, mitigated with a series of organizational restructures, process improvements and automated tools."

About 86% of DCMA's resources are associated with labor, and the organization has lost $309 million, or 23%, of its annual budget over the last eight years.

The agency has advocated for additional resources through the planning, programming, budget, and execution process, which has resulted in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller directing DCMA to undergo a comprehensive, independent, third-party manpower study. The study findings will be used to quantify and provide substantive documentation of the agency's manpower requirements.

As the DCMA chief financial officer, Wilcoxon commissioned the study with the support of Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, DCMA director, and Sonya Ebright, deputy director. Artis was hand-selected to oversee and manage the study's execution.

Christopher Borek, from the Financial and Business Operations Directorate, said the requirements analysis has two primary focuses. "It will determine if the agency's Resource Workload Model is sufficient for its intended purpose," said Borek, who is working closely with Artis on managing the scope and timeline of the study, "and it will set DCMA on a path to quantify manpower requirements."

Over the next several months, experts from the RAND National Defense Research Institute will examine agency policy and other guiding documents, and interview the workforce to understand the DCMA mission. The study team will then begin an intensive look at operational work at agency locations around the world using a hybrid of site visits, virtual discussions and data calls.

The agency invested a great deal of effort in selecting the right organization to conduct the study. DCMA's size and the scope of the study were beyond what the Army, Air Force and Navy manpower analysis agencies felt comfortable pursuing. The agency then turned to RAND NDRI, a nonprofit, federally funded research and development center.

Wilcoxon said that leadership at all levels are eager for the independent analysis of the DCMA mission. "The study findings will be invaluable to inform decision making and will provide quantifiable data, context and answers to validate the DOD comptroller's, and others stakeholders relative to DCMA, budgetary request."

Artis said employees will benefit most of all, and if asked to participate, they should be open, honest and candid. "The desired end state is for the agency to be resourced at the appropriate level to successfully execute the DCMA mission on behalf of the warfighter. We can't get there without a deep-dive analysis of core functional requirements."

The DCMA Manpower Requirements and Staffing Analysis is expected to wrap up in late 2025. Employees can find more information on the study on DoD365 -J (login required).

Public link

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