The Evolution of DEVCOM
March 29, 2022by Argie Sarantinos, DEVCOM Headquarters
In the midst of the country’s global war on terror, the U.S. Army stood up a new two-star command with the intent of increasing the speed of developing and delivering technology to Warfighters. Known as the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, or RDECOM, when it was established in March 2004, the command comprised six engineering centers and labs. Eighteen years later, the command’s core mission remains, but it has made numerous changes to drive technology development and deliver capabilities that support the Army’s modernization priorities.
When RDECOM became part of the Army Futures Command in 2018, it was renamed U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, or DEVCOM. Joining AFC was the next step in the Army’s significant effort to transform its approach to modernization.
“DEVCOM is creating, integrating and delivering technology-enabled solutions that enable Army modernization. The DEVCOM team is providing the expertise to drive persistent modernization that empowers warfighters today and well into the future,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Todd, AFC deputy commanding general, Acquisition and Systems Management.
The DEVCOM workforce of more than 15,000 people is comprised of scientists, engineers, analysts and technicians at more than 100 locations around the world who take potential S&T solutions from the lab “into the dirt” for experimentation with Soldiers. DEVCOM now consists of eight technology centers and labs, three forward elements that coordinate the command’s global mission and a headquarters team that supports and provides strategic guidance to the centers and labs.
Refocused and Reorganized
When DEVCOM moved under AFC, it shifted its efforts to align with the Army’s six modernization priorities, and it conducted a series of enterprise-wide sprints to ensure the command was on track to meet its mission.
“AFC challenged DEVCOM to look at alternate ways of doing business. The command conducted several sprints designed to tackle near-term focus areas that would help increase our value proposition and ensure we are a premier workplace of choice. The information is the foundation of our S&T Integration, Talent Management Strategy and optimization of our Operating Model,” said Maj. Gen. Miles Brown, DEVCOM commanding general.
To best support AFC and Army priorities, DEVCOM is focused on four key areas that underscore its mission: Foundational Research, Science & Technology, Life Cycle Engineering, and Analysis. These areas comprise the Mission Essential Task List, which is underpinned by our foundational and enabling domains and driven by the command’s Talent Management and Climate Efforts.
“Our strategic planning team, in collaboration with the center teammates and leadership, established corporate metrics that align with the commander’s defined Mission Essential Task List. At the core, the METL is what our command does and must deliver for AFC and the Army,” said Kim Gietka, DEVCOM Chief Operating Officer. “This is all made possible by our people.”
The command leadership team converted a traditionally military chief of staff position to a civilian COO in 2021 to reinforce sustainable processes and continuity for DEVCOM’s primarily civilian workforce. The COO works closely with the executive leadership team to ensure continuous operations across DEVCOM, which includes overseeing the day-to-day business operations of the headquarters team.
The COO works hand-in-hand with another recently established group, the Science & Technology Integration office.
Creating the Science & Technology Integration office
A newly created S&TI office within the headquarters focuses on four areas: creating integrating events, processes and systems between the centers and labs; managing the transition of technologies; integrating S&T data; and identifying opportunities for the centers and labs to work together.
“Standing up the S&TI organization enables us to amplify the work that the centers and labs are doing and identify opportunities and connections for collaboration. Collaboration across the enterprise enables us to provide the S&T to meet our mission,” said Chris Manning, S&TI director.
The S&TI team consists of five divisions: planning, programs, experimentation, partnership and data and analysis. Each team is organized into talent pools based on competency areas. The teams, which are horizontally integrated, work together to solve problems and complete projects. A military deputy, a deputy director and a newly created Chief Technology Officer round out the team. The CTO will focus on strategy, technology advocacy awareness and integrating S&T.
DEVCOM headquarters serves as the primary interface across the science and technology enterprise, and both the CTO and the COO are critical integration points for the headquarters staff.
The CTO is spearheading an enterprise-wide Threat-Informed S&T sprint. Members of the sprint team were selected based on their skills, diversity and knowledge of the topic. The team is researching how to: identify and understand the adversaries’ S&T advancements; translate the advancements into future technology and capabilities; use the information to inform research programs; and institutionalize the practices across the command and with partners.
DEVCOM works with hundreds of academic and industry partners to exchange ideas, develop technologies and transfer technologies, which is a key part of its mission. The command transitions an average of 30-60 projects into programs of record each year.
“From a core business point of view, we put more discipline and more structure into how we manage and execute our S&T projects. We adopted an industry best-practice, stage-gate methodology by dividing our projects into a series of stages and gates, or decision points. This enabled us to keep an eye on how we were executing our projects and delivering against our priorities,” said John Willison, DEVCOM deputy to the commanding general.
Living the future of work
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, DEVCOM shifted to an increased remote/hybrid posture to keep its workforce safe and healthy. The command released a Future of Work concept paper, which outlined key areas that would remain constant and those that would be adapted for the future. DEVCOM adopted ‘work where and when you are most productive’ as one tailorable characteristic of the objective state.
One of the most significant aspects of the concept is the opportunity to attract and retain the best talent anywhere and thereby be fully inclusive, providing the workforce opportunities with few boundaries.
DEVCOM also leveraged the new concept to form geographically dispersed, cross-competency/cross-organization teams to rapidly deliver integrated solutions.
“The Future of Work opened the aperture of who was willing to compete for open positions within our team, and it gave us very competitive candidates. As we solicit for open positions, we don’t restrict candidates to a particular duty location,” Manning said.
As the pandemic continued, the DEVCOM workforce continued maximum telework, moving from phase one, a reactive approach, into a pilot program, a proactive approach, in fall 2021. The command continues to collect data to inform best practices, tools and processes for the next phase, Enterprise Hybrid Operations. DEVCOM is leading the Future of Work concept for AFC and the Army.
“We believe the future of work will be a competitive advantage for us by giving people flexibility to work in different spaces, which will give them different opportunities across the command and possibly challenge them to work together to solve compelling problems,” Willison said.
Focusing on people
Talent Management and the mission to attract, develop and retain a capable workforce that operates across competencies and domains is a top priority for the command.
“We talk a lot about technology and engineering, but it really is a people business,” Willison said.
DEVCOM developed and published a Talent Management Strategy, which includes six talent domains and more than 70 competency areas, in March 2021. The command identified the current talent within each domain, as well as any gaps that needed to be filled. A key part of the strategy is developing existing talent and shifting from reactively filling job vacancies to proactively building the talent needed to continue executing the mission as technology advances.
“When we talk about talent management, most people jump to recruiting and retaining talent. We placed significant emphasis on the first step, which is defining the talent you need now and in the future. Then, we can determine the best way to attract the talent, which may be partnering with universities or reaching out to certain communities. We also want to attract new talent and refresh the talent we have. We want new people with new ideas and new approaches to join our organization,” Willison said.
Part of the talent management strategy includes fostering a diverse workforce, which will enable the innovation, adaption and cultural understanding necessary to succeed in today’s complex environment.
DEVCOM is establishing a Director of Equity & Inclusion office that will report directly to the commander. The office will foster a culture of trust and acceptance and ensure equal opportunity and fair treatment across the command.
“Our business is innovation, and we know innovation comes from diversity of thought and diversity of thought comes from a diverse workforce, which includes geography, background and educational experience. We can spur greater innovation with diversity by reaching to a more diverse set of people, connecting them and offering an opportunity to work in a different way,” Willison said.
An extension of the Talent Management strategy is an emphasis on developing leaders across the enterprise. DEVCOM recently launched a Leadership Development sprint, based on employee feedback from surveys and leadership assessments. The goals of the sprint team are to make recommendations on how to: define the leadership domain; determine the competencies needed to fill the leadership domain; and identify and make recommendations about developmental opportunities.
“We have evolved in the past 18 years from a set of individual organizations to a set of independent organizations operating under an administrative headquarters and then to a set of independent organizations working collaboratively under the headquarters. Our goal is to have a set of co-dependent teams with a shared set of strategic priorities operating under a synchronizing and integrating higher headquarters,” Willison said.
“As a formation of unique organizations with uniquely talented people, DEVCOM solves the Army’s toughest problems and delivers integrated solutions. We will continue to evolve to meet our mission in support of Multi-Domain Operations 2028 and beyond,” Brown said.