Army shifts rollout of new personnel and pay system to September 2022

By U.S. Army Public AffairsOctober 7, 2021

WASHINGTON – U.S. Army senior leaders announced today that the rollout of the Integrated Personnel Pay System-Army Release 3 will be moved from December 2021 to September 2022. IPPS-A is the Army’s No. 1 human resources modernization effort, and is currently undergoing vigorous testing prior to deployment.

“We must make sure that IPPS-A is a thoroughly tested and high-quality product when delivered to Soldiers, HR professionals and leaders,” said Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1. “We are fully committed to delivering IPPS-A across all three components, meeting the needs of our Soldiers and the Army of the future with a 21st century talent management system.”

IPPS-A will transform industrial age, paper-based systems into a modern digital infrastructure. This system will improve Soldiers’ lives by reducing pay and personnel errors, providing full transparency of actions, and implementing mobile, self-service capabilities. Soldiers will have near-real-time 24/7 access to their personnel records and will be able to electronically submit and track action requests, such as leave. Leaders will have visibility of over 1.1 million Soldiers across all three components in one system. IPPS-A will also introduce talent management capabilities, which will give Soldiers more control over their careers and allow leaders to better manage the talents of every Soldier.

“Over the past year, IPPS-A Release 3 underwent an extensive across-the-board testing process designed to identify issues and ensure proper fielding with minimal disruption to Soldiers,” said Col. Rebecca L. Eggers, IPPS-A Functional Management Division Chief. “The system completed two of three government tests, but is not ready to enter the final test phase. The stress tests revealed some interface and data-integration challenges, and we determined additional time will be needed to correct data-transfer issues and resolve software defects. The testing phase is working as designed by identifying issues that need to be addressed before going forward. IPPS-A is a giant leap forward and we are going to get it right.”

As a result, the final test phase, the limited user test, will be moved from September 2021 to June 2022, and IPPS-A Release 3 will go live from December 2021 to September 2022. Each test phase has specific entrance and exit criteria, adding increased complexity with more data transfers from outdated legacy systems and the incorporation of real-world users to assess readiness to go live. Preparations for IPPS-A to go live remain ongoing, and updated guidance will be published soon.

“Our focus remains on training, testing the system, and preparing our Soldiers,” said Eggers. “Units need to use this time to refine the required steps for full go-live preparation and maximum support of our Soldiers. Leaders and HR professionals should focus on completing their required IPPS-A training, and Soldiers must also ‘PMCS their records’ to ensure their personnel data is accurate and up to date. The best data will ensure IPPS-A starts with the strongest foundation.”

For more information about IPPS-A, visit https://ipps-a.army.mil/. You can also find IPPS-A on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

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The Army finished fielding Release 2 of the system to the Army National Guard in March 2020. Release 3 builds on the capabilities of Release 2 and will incorporate both the active and Reserve components. Release 3 will provide HR professionals and unit leadership across the total Army the ability to provide HR services and manage a Soldier’s HR record from accession through separation. Functional capabilities include a customer relations module, HR support, talent management, business intelligence and analytics, and military pay functionality by interfacing directly with the Defense Joint Military Pay System.