Booz Allen Hamilton is a leading provider of management consulting, technology, and engineering services to the US government and major corporations. The document summarizes Booz Allen's approach to helping the Department of Defense improve military readiness decision-making through analytical decision support solutions. These solutions analyze relationships between readiness requirements, resources, costs, and risks to provide visibility into trade-offs and help allocate resources more effectively to maximize readiness under constrained budgets. The key elements of Booz Allen's approach include focusing on specific readiness challenges, creating an analytical framework relating requirements and resources, analyzing and integrating necessary data, and applying appropriate tools and technologies.

1. About Booz Allen
Booz Allen Hamilton is
a leading provider of
management consulting,
technology, and engineering
services to the US government
in defense, intelligence, and
civil markets, and to major
corporations, institutions, and
not-for-profit organizations.
Booz Allen is headquartered
in McLean, Virginia, employs
more than 23,000 people, and
had revenue of $5.76 billion
for the 12 months ended
March 31, 2013. (NYSE: BAH)
Mission Readiness Abstract
Creating Decision-Support Solutions that Address
Complex Operational Requirements and Fiscal Realities
The mission readiness of US military forces is under siege on multiple fronts. A decade
of war has cut into readiness resources, while constrained budgets have reduced funding
for training, equipment maintenance, and other readiness components. At the same
time, today’s warfighters must be trained and equipped to confront a variety of potential
adversaries on battlefields that are evolving irregularly, asymmetrically, and rapidly. With
readiness requirements growing and readiness resources shrinking, the Department of
Defense must find innovative ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the
readiness production process.
Thom Crabtree
Senior Vice President
crabtree_thomas@bah.com
757-893-6134
The challenge is to create readiness decision-support solutions that provide a clear
understanding of the trade-offs among readiness requirements, resources and capabilities,
costs, and risks. This is a complex undertaking. Decision makers must be able to see how
each of these elements impacts the others from a readiness vantage point, so they can
allocate resources most effectively to achieve the highest levels of readiness. Unfortunately,
current readiness reporting solutions are no longer sufficient to answer today’s complex
resource trade-off questions.
Margaret Arney
Senior Associate
arney_margaret@bah.com
703-902-5672
Booz Allen Hamilton is helping military organizations resolve these issues using readiness
decision support solutions that go beyond current reporting systems to provide visibility
into the full spectrum of readiness variables. Our approach is based on four major building
blocks:
Autumn Kosinski
Senior Associate
kosinski_autumn@bah.com
757-892-6475
•
Focus on the Specific Readiness Challenges or Goals to be Addressed. A thorough
understanding and assessment of an organization’s readiness production process is
required to ensure that the solution is focused on the organization’s mission needs and
readiness challenges and goals.
www.boozallen.com
•
Create an Analytical Framework that Forms the Right Relationships Between Requirements,
Resources, and Costs. To design an effective analytical framework, organizations need to
start by establishing the readiness questions that need to be answered and identifying
the outputs that need to be produced. This will help guide the complex task of analyzing,
weighting, and measuring the complex interdependences among readiness components.
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2. •
Analyze, Integrate, and Aggregate the Necessary Data. Getting the right data for readiness
decision making is a complex process; however, validating data to make sure it’s reliable
is essential to achieving actionable results.
•
Apply the Right Tools and Technologies. The solution should guide the technology selection
(not vice versa). Organizations should start with the end-state vision to ensure that
the solution will be scalable to support long-term as well as near-term needs. It’s also
important to approach the solution from a technology-agnostic perspective to allow the
requirements (operational, functional, data, analytical, security) to drive the solution.
Numerous US military organizations have applied these four building blocks to improve key
elements of their readiness reporting systems to:
•
Enhance understanding of their readiness production processes;
•
Provide insight into readiness gaps and shortfalls;
•
Identify cost drivers and readiness degraders to enable a better focus on activities that
improve readiness efficiencies, processes, and activities;
•
Measure progress toward readiness requirements;
•
Improve decision making to minimize risk, allocate resources more effectively, and make
informed trade-offs between current readiness and future readiness investments.
Rising threats and falling budgets leave little room for error in readiness planning. By
applying the four building blocks when implementing readiness decision-support solutions,
military organizations can maximize readiness while minimizing risks and costs.
To read the full paper, please visit http://missions.boozallen.com/PreferenceCenter
and indicate that you are a current or potential client working for a Defense organization.
BA13-153
Use of the Department of Defense image does not constitute or imply endorsement.