Vanguard Magazine

The Canadian Army does currently have tactical networking capabilities and radios which may well be able to support initial operational capa- bilities. In this case, some capabilities can be delivered before TCM starts delivering. www.vanguardcanada.com JUNE/JULY 2019 15 interview require: (1) putting in the hard work to identify the interdependencies and accu- rately scope all the projects, (2) constantly monitoring and adjusting projects as they advance, and (3) asking for a more flexible costing model for the rapidly changing high technology components of the projects. As the projects move through the Op- tions Analysis phase, the Army and Direc- tor General Land Equipment Program Management (DGLEPM) is putting in the effort to map out the overall C4ISR requirements space and clearly identify which projects own which parts of this space and where the interdependencies and potential conflict spots are. What has to be avoided is developing the individual projects in isolation. But to enable suc- cess, project managers need defined proj- ect scopes. Once these project scopes and interdependencies have been determined, project progress needs to be tracked and cross-compared. Inevitably, some proj- ects will have schedule and scope slippage, and maybe some projects will deliver early. This is where the hard work will need to be done to readjust the program. The key enabler for this may well be some more flexible costing methods for the high-tech options. First, it must be said that this is not asking for fewer or less rigorous costings to be done. Nor is it an effort to get more funding. Instead, for the rapidly changing high tech com- ponents, this is seen more as an effort to spread the capital investment over the full life cycle of the capability. This will allow continual course corrections as technology advances, and also as expected technology advancements take longer than expected to mature. But this is not a panacea; the key trade-off is that equipment is procured over the life cycle of the capability. For software and system configurations, this is more easily managed – likely all in-service systems can be updated. But for hardware – for things like radios – this will mean that only a smaller capability will be bought up front, and then, as new more capable ra- dios are procured, that Army will have a mixed fleet. Again, for each project, as they move through the Options Analysis phase, the investment and procurement method will need to be determined for each sub-capa- bility so as to enable the program to retain coherence. This is hard work with lots of risks. There is no easy solution. Q The benefits of agile procurement appear obvious. What other options is the Army considering in case the pro- curement rules/policies are NOT changed to facilitate agile procurement? This follows on from the previous an- swers. First, I would not necessarily use the words "agile procurement" as I do not think it is really the key issue being ad- dressed. In my experience with actual pro- curement, which I will admit is limited, I think that ADM(Mat) is able to relatively quickly and flexibly execute procurements. Certainly, there are challenges, as we are talking about large amounts of taxpayers' dollars that must be well managed. The real challenge I see, and the area where I have the most experience in, is the project approval processes. Procure- ment can only progress once a project has been approved and the funding approved. And that procurement typically needs to spend the approved funds in the approved spending profile. The key trick I see here is that during the Options Analysis phase for the SSE 42 projects, the Army, work- ing very closely with DGLEPM, needs to determine the project spending profiles that best meet the Army's operational requirements. For some parts of the SSE 42 program, this may be the standard 'big bang' approach of fully buying the capability up front. For others, it may be a more iterative approach. The next big trick, and maybe this is the magical trick, is that costing models need to be developed to allow these iterative approaches to be Photos: DND.

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