Huntsville, Ala. - The Army Contract Writing System Capabilities Management Office hosted a business process re-engineering workshop here from Feb 25-27.
Representatives from the various stakeholders including Army Contracting Command and its subordinate units; U.S. Army Medical Command; U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activities; Program Executive Office -- Simulation, Training and Instrumentation; U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Technology Applications Office; National Guard Bureau and the ACWS Product Office attended and supported the workshop, according to Col. Michelle Sanner, ACWS CMO.
"The purpose of the workshop was to validate information gathered throughout the business process re-engineering effort," Sanner said. "We focused the 3-day workshop on three main areas: updating the stakeholders on the current status of the program, sharing best practices from each of the commands, and input on the 'to-be' processes. 'To-be' processes can be described as what do we want our future contract writing system to look like."
Sanner said the initial BPR effort began in November 2012 when the stakeholders developed 60 initial "as-is" process narratives.
"As-is process narratives are current descriptions of the contracting processes that our contracting officers and specialists carry-out daily," Sanner said. "Examples of the contracting process narratives that were developed include solicitations, contract modifications, and peer reviews.
"In May 2013, the BPR effort moved forward with the help of two architect engineers, Carolyn Smith and Sonnie Hereford, from the ACC Chief Information Office G-6. Carolyn and Sonnie took the initial 60 narratives and converted them into 59 process models. Process modeling is a mechanism for describing and communicating the current or future state of a business process. The goal of a process model is to show a business process in a way, usually a flow chart, which is easily understood and can ultimately be used for documentation purposes."
Sanner said this portion of the effort was the most extensive and took six months to complete. At the end of the six-month effort, the stakeholders reviewed the as-is process models virtually between October and January.
She said the completion of the workshop initiated the last phase of the BPR effort. The CMO will now take the feedback and package it into a document, which will be delivered to the ACWS Product Office by March 31. The product office has an annual requirement to submit the BPR at the Office of Secretary of Defense-level.
"Ultimately, the process models are a tool that will be handed to whichever vendor is awarded the ACWS contract and will be used to develop our future contract writing system," Sanner said. "The BPR effort is one piece of the big puzzle with the end state being a new Army Contract Writing System."
More information on the Army Contract Writing System Capabilities Management Office can be obtained at https://acc.aep.army.mil/G6/cmo. Access to the site is limited to personnel with a common access card and the appropriate permissions to the SharePoint site.
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