Baseline Process Cost

What it will cost each year to conduct the business process if we do nothing other than carry out existing plans (i.e., if we do everything we plan to do except implement the process improvement we’re evaluating). Specifically:

• If the expected financial benefit is savings, the baseline process cost equals the funding in the program and budget for the process when the project begins.
• If the expected financial benefit type is cost avoidance, the baseline equals either the funding in the program and budget for the process when the project begins, or the cost of a validated but unfunded requirement when the project begins.

Baseline Revenue Generation

The revenue that will be generated each year if we do nothing other than carry out existing plans (i.e., if we do everything we plan to do except implement the process improvement we’re evaluating).

Business Initiative

Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA)

Business Mission Area

The Army BMA portfolio is sub-divided into the domain portfolios of acquisition, human resources, financial management, logistics, and installations, energy, and environment.

Business Operations

Best Practices

Business Process Improvement

Business Process Reengineering

Business Transformation

Deep Green

The Army’s professional development data science challenge and competition, which seeks to solve the Army’s most difficult challenges by creating operational models that increase efficiency and effectiveness of systems and processes.

Defense Business System (DBS)

An information system, other than a national security system; operated by, for, or on behalf of the DoD, including financial systems, mixed systems, financial data feeder systems, and IT and information assurance infra-structure, used to support business activities, such as acquisition, financial management, logistics, strategic planning and budgeting, installations and environment, human resource management and training and readiness. These business activities are expressly stated in 10 USC 2222.

Domain

A subset of the BMA portfolio that aligns to areas of common operational and functional requirements. A BMA domain includes the core business processes of that mission subset and the business systems that predominantly support those core business processes. The Army retains six BMA domains: Acquisition (ASA(ALT)); Financial Management (ASA(FM&C)); Human Resources Management (ASA(M&RA)/DCS, G–1); Logistics (ASA(ALT)/DCS, G–4); Training and Readiness (G-3/5/7); and Installations, Energy, and Environment (ASA(IE&E)/G-9).

Enterprise to Enterprise (E2E) Business Processes

The E2E business processes represent both commercial and government leading practices for integrating common business processes to support all functions of the BMA. Each E2E provides a customer centric view of how a strategic capability is delivered as a set of integrated business functions that fulfill a need identified by the organization. E2Es are primarily transactional in nature, comprising the key human resource management, logistics, acquisition, materiel, installations and financial management, and training and readiness functions that support the Department of the Army’s goals of materiel and financial auditability. They provide the management structure that can be used for assessing compliance to laws, regulations and policies, establishing performance measures, be-coming audit ready and identifying opportunities for BPR.

Efficiencies

Actions or initiatives that reduce dollar costs. There are three categories of efficiencies. Category 1 efficiencies reduce the cost of performing a given function with no degradation in mission accomplishment or customer satisfaction, and they do so in a manner that enables managers to allocate the funds to other functions. Category 2 efficiencies reduce the cost of performing a given function with no degradation in mission accomplishment or customer satisfaction, but they do so in a manner that does not enable managers to allocate the funds to other functions. Category 3 efficiencies reduce the cost of performing a given function with no regard to mission accomplishment or customer satisfaction, and they do so in a manner that enables managers to either allocate the funds to other functions or satisfy an imposed funding reduction.

Enterprise

The highest level in an organization; it includes all missions, tasks, and activities or functions.

Enterprise Architecture

An integrated framework for describing operations used to conduct business process re-engineering and to align the acquisition, evolution, and operation of IT to achieve the organization's strategic and business goals. A complete enterprise architecture consists of operational, system, and technical components. The operational architecture provides the high-level description of the organization's mission, functional requirements, information requirements, system components, and information flows among the components. The system architecture describes the system view of the supporting infrastructure. The technical architecture defines the specific IT standards and rules that will be used to implement the systems architecture.

Enterprise Decision Analytics Framework (EDAF)

The Army Enterprise Decision Analytics Framework (EDAF) is a strategic capability and leadership asset enabling synchronized strategic, operational, and business management decision making across the enterprise.

Enterprise Knowledge Repository (EKR)

The EKR is a set of commercial off the shelf tools that provide modeling, search, business analytics, collaboration and decision support capabilities to support full spectrum architecture development, portfolio management and business transformation across the BMA. EKR provides an authoritative repository for business technical data required at the enterprise level, organized and harmonized across all E2E business processes. EKR supports stakeholders in the Army and elsewhere in the DoD, from the individuals directly creating architecture models, to DBS owners describing how their system works, to multiple levels of decision-makers who view directly reports in EKR or have reports generated from EKR.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

An IT system using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software consisting of multiple, integrated functional modules that perform a variety of business related tasks such as payroll, general ledger accounting, and supply chain management.

Financial Systems

A financial system is an information system that may perform one or all financial functions including general ledger management, funds management, payment management, receivable management, and cost management. It is the system of record that maintains all transactions resulting from financial events. It may be integrated through a common database or interfaced electronically to meet defined data and processing requirements. It is specifically used for collecting, processing, maintaining, transmitting, and reporting data regarding financial events. Other uses include supporting financial planning, budgeting activities, and preparing financial statements. Any data transfers to the financial system must be: traceable to the transaction source; posted to the core financial system in accordance with applicable guidance from the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board; and in the data for-mat of the financial system. A financial management system includes the core financial systems and the financial portions of mixed systems necessary to support financial management, including automated and manual processes, procedures, and controls, data, hardware, software, and support personnel dedicated to the operation and maintenance of system functions.

Global Force Management Data Initiative

The GFM DI is a Joint Staff and OSD initiative designed to standardize force structure representation, making it visible, accessible, and understandable across the DoD. GFM DI uses Force Management identifiers (FMI) to associate and uniquely identify billets, crews, equipment, and chain of command links which enable electronic manipulation of force structure data across multiple systems. Through establishment of an information exchange data standard, GFM DI enables DoD systems to exchange force structure data in a common format while exploiting the net-centric data environment.

General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS)

GFEBS is a Web-based ERP system for the United States Army. GFEBS replaces or absorbs more than 80 legacy accounting and asset management systems to standardize business processes and transactional inputs across the Army.

Implementation Cost

The cost incurred to conduct a process improvement project, redesign the process, and put the redesigned process in place. Implementation cost is a one-time cost, not a recurring cost.

Improvement

Iterative and incremental change to achieve better outcomes or lower costs.

Innovation

The result of critical and creative thinking and the conversion of new ideas into valued outcomes.

Integrated management system (IMS)

Unified, organizational components or elements leveraged to manage business operations and optimize performance in a fully interconnected, and mutually beneficial manner.

Joint Information Environment

JIE is a construct that facilitates the convergence of the DoD’s multiple networks into one common and shared global network – the Global Information Grid. Emphasis remains on enterprise services, interoperability, common software applications, identity, and access management, and network security. Major Enterprise Information Environment Mission Area (Army Network Mission Area) programs certify to the DoD-defined JIE.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS)

LSS is a disciplined, data-driven method for eliminating waste and defects in any process to provide an overall cultural change in Army organizations. The Army’s LSS program maintains a cadre of continuous improvement practitioners who can sustain the Army’s ability to execute enterprise-level and local LSS projects.

Machine learning (ML)

An application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it to learn for themselves.

Measure

A routine assessment of performance against declarative statements of goals, outcomes, or objectives. Performance measures maintain time-specific targets and previous levels of performance toward meeting goals and objectives. Measures normally refer to the outputs or outcomes of activities. 

Measures allow progress to be compared to an established standard or desired outcome.  

Metric

Indicators that measure progress compared to an established standard and can be analyzed to assess progress towards achieving desired outcomes.

Mission Areas

Mission areas represent the major capability areas of the Army, including interfaces to other DoD national security activities. For portfolio management purposes – DoD operations, IT, and national security systems are categorized into the following mission areas: Warfighting Mission Area (WMA), Business Mission Area (BMA), Defense Intelligence Mission Area (DIMA), and the Enterprise Information Environment Mission Area (EIEMA). Army portfolio management aligns to DoD mission areas.

Monthly Military Personnel Review (M2PR)

Informs the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (G-1) on the current status of military personnel appropriations, crosswalks requirements with resources, and addresses available resources to manage the military personnel appropriations of the Active Component, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard by comparing the variances between expected execution and actual execution on a monthly basis.

Multi-domain Operations (MDO).

Operations conducted across multiple domains and contested spaces to overcome an adversary’s (or enemy’s) strengths by presenting them with several operational and/or tactical dilemmas through the combined application of calibrated force posture; employment of multi-domain formations; and convergence of capabilities across domains, environments, and functions in time and spaces to achieve operational and tactical objectives.

Operational Activity

Operational activities represent tasks or functions required to achieve a specific mission or outcome within an E2E process. Operational activities are defined in the BEA OV – 5.

Performance Management

Performance management is a systematic process aimed at helping achieve and organizations mission and strategic goals by improving effectiveness, empowering employees, and streamlining delivery of high quality information to aid in decision-making.

Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE)

The Department of Defense’s cyclic process for determining requirements and allocating resources.

Portfolio

The collection of capabilities, resources, and related investments managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. Management activities for the portfolio include strategic planning, capital planning, governance, process improvements, performance metrics and/or measures, requirements generation, acquisition and/or development, and operations. The Army BMA portfolio is sub-divided into the domain portfolios of acquisition, human re-sources, financial management, logistics, and installations, energy, and environment.

Portfolio Management

The management of selected groupings of investments using integrated strategic planning, integrated architectures, measures of performance, risk management techniques, transition plans, and portfolio investment strategies to achieve a mission capability. The core activities associated with portfolio management are: analysis, selection, control, and evaluation.

Portfolio Rationalization

The process of determining a recommended end state within a set period. Rationalization seeks to:

1) reduce unnecessarily redundant IT systems
2) close capability gaps within the Army BMA
3) improve audit-readiness and transparency
4) consolidate disparate and non-interoperable IT systems under the federated ERP system
environment
5) reduce costs
6) increase efficiency and effectiveness of Army business processes.

Portfolio Review

Annual review of all Army investments using DoD guidance, Army policy, industry best practices, risk management techniques, measures of performance, transition plans, and portfolio investment strategies to ensure appropriate allocation of Army resources and health of Army IT investments in support of Army business processes. Review business cases for strategic alignment, return on investment, affordability, cross-domain integration, and best practices of business process re-engineering.

Pre–certification Authority

The USA/CMO serves as the pre-certification authority (PCA) for DBS that meet the OSD-defined $1 million cost threshold over the FYDP. The PCA is responsible for ensuring compliance with investment review policies pre-scribed by the Army and the DoD’s Defense Business Systems Investment Management Process Guidance through the annual certification cycle.

Process Champion

Process champions are senior business leaders whose role is to facilitate business processes and systems alignment through the E2E business process value chain, to defend the interests and requirements of Army customers who depend on E2E business processes to conduct business. The process champion is the person or organization re-sponsible for the daily promotion and encouragement to use the process improvement throughout the E2E process. Process champions are also responsible for the ongoing training, assessment, and continuous improvement of their assigned process. For A2R, Service request to resolution, and proposal to award, multiple process champions are appointed to facilitate systems alignment by specific functions.

Process Cost

What it costs each year to perform a given business process. Process cost is a recurring cost, not a one-time cost.

Program Objective Memorandum (POM)

Recommendations from the Services and Defense Agencies to the Secretary of Defense concerning how they plan to allocate resources to meet planning and programming guidance.

Program Update Brief (PUB)

With the Monthly Military Personnel Review (M2PR), steers the overall Army manpower program for all three Army Components.

Resource management

Resource management is planning, organizing, and allocating the resources important to your business to ensure maximum efficiency. These resources include both tangible and intangible resources.

Revenue Generation

An increase in the dollars that flow into the Army, over and above appropriated funds or over and above the expected amount of customer funding received through a revolving fund.

Revised Process Cost

What it will cost each year to conduct the business process if a decision is made to implement the revised process and the implementation goes as expected.

Revised Revenue Generation

The revenue that will be generated each year if a decision is made to implement the revised process and the implementation goes as expected.

Risk Management

The process of managing risks to organization operations (including mission, functions, image, reputation), organization assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation, resulting from the operation of an information system, and includes: 1) the conduct of a risk assessment; 2) the implementation of a risk mitigation strategy; and 3) employment of techniques and procedures for the continuous monitoring of the security state of the information system.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Tools governed by business logic and structured inputs that automate business processes. RPA tools capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems.

Savings

Any cost reduction that enables a manager to remove programmed or budgeted funds and apply them to other uses.

Scalable

Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system. In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that a company can increase sales given increased resources.

Sensitive Activities

Programs that restrict personnel access, such as alternative compensatory control measures (ACCM); sensitive support to other federal agencies; clandestine or covert operational or intelligence activities; sensitive research, development, acquisition, or contracting activities; special activities, and other activities excluded from normal staff review and oversight because of restrictions on access to information.

Services – Information Technology

A software component and/or application that performs a defined function and is accessible and/or callable by consumer agents via a published interface and/or application program interface on or over a network. Services include: 1) personnel whose duties relate to the general management and operations of IT, including certain over-head costs associated with performance management offices; 2) maintenance of an existing application, infrastructure program or initiative; 3) corrective software maintenance, including all efforts to diagnose and correct actual errors (for example, processing or performance errors) in a system; 4) maintenance of existing voice and data communications capabilities; 5) replacement of broken IT equipment needed to continue operations at the current service level; and 6) all other related costs not identified as development and/or modernization. This definition should be considered complementary to other IT service definitions being developed by CIO.

Stakeholder

An individual or organization having an ownership or interest in the delivery, results, metrics, and improvement of the quality, system, framework, or business processes.

Strategic alignment

A state of consistency among plans, processes, information, workforce capability and capacity, decisions, actions, results, and analyses that support organization-wide goals. Strategic outcome. Result achieved by the successful implementation of the strategy.

Strategic Goal

Future conditions or performance levels that the organization intends or desires to attain. They are the ends that guide actions.

Strategic Management System

The Army’s SMS is the current tool used to manage Army and organizational strategy execution. The SMS tool helps leaders to measure progress against their organization’s strategic goals. The SMS program allows organization leaders to communicate strategy; demonstrate alignment; build goals, measures and targets; assess performance against those goals, measures and targets; and to review execution of strategy.

System

An organized assembly of resources and procedures united and regulated by interaction or interdependence to accomplish a set of specific functions. Within the context of the Army Enterprise Architecture, systems are people, technology, and processes organized to accomplish a set of specific functions; provide a capability or satisfy a stated need or objective; or produce, use, transform, or exchange information. For the purpose of reporting to the Army Information Technology Registry, the terms application and system are used synonymously — a discrete set of information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of information (that is, the application of IT).

System Owner

The system proponent and the agency or organization that establishes the need for the IT system. Develops requirements, provides funding, designates who will manage data entry, and aligns requirements with APMS standards.

Target Defense Business Systems

Target DBS represent the desired end-state. Target systems subsume other systems and may also be subsumed in future fiscal years as other target systems come online or expand. The list of target systems is revised annually. For portfolio review purposes, DBSs are defined as core, legacy, and target.

Title 10 United States Code (USC)

Statutory law governing the Armed Forces of the United States. It defines the roles, missions, and organization of the services and the Department of Defense.

Unmatched Transactions (UMT)

A disbursement transaction that has been received and accepted by an accounting office but has not been matched to the correct detail obligation. This includes transactions that have been rejected back to the paying office or central disbursement clearing organization by an accounting office.

Value Engineering (VE)

VE is a systematic approach to analyzing the functions of systems, equipment, facilities, services and supplies to ensure they achieve their essential functions at the lowest life cycle cost consistent with required performance, reliability, quality, and safety. Implementing the VE process on a problem typically increases performance, reliability, quality, safety, durability, effectiveness, or other desirable characteristics.