DIA TIO Career Path Implementation Guide_2014

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Defense Intelligence Agency
CAREER PATH DEVELOPMENT
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE
Committed to Excellence in Defense of the Nation
One Mission. One Team. One Agency.

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Executive Summary........................................................................................................................ 3
Section 1. Purpose of this Guide..................................................................................................... 3
Section 2. Keeping Career Path Development Data Relevant and Accurate.................................. 4
2.1 Collect Background Information .......................................................................................... 4
2.2 Refresh Competencies .......................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Refresh Behavioral Indicators .............................................................................................. 6
2.4 Refresh Training and Development Options ........................................................................ 6
2.5 Revise Performance Management Criteria........................................................................... 6
Section 3. Communicating Career Development............................................................................ 7
3.1 ST Communication Plan....................................................................................................... 7
3.2 OHR and OA/OCPM/OCPM Communication Plan............................................................. 7
Section 4: Summary........................................................................................................................ 7
Section 5. Appendices..................................................................................................................... 8
Appendix A: Glossary of Frequently Used Terms ..................................................................... 8
Appendix B: Timeline of Events for Refreshing ST’s Career Path Development Initiative
Materials ................................................................................................................................... 10
Appendix C: Original Career Path Development Project Methodology .................................. 13
Appendix D: Sample Career Path Development Refresh Questions........................................ 17
Appendix E: Status of Tasks for OA/OCPM/CPM Program for ST ........................................ 19
Appendix F: References............................................................................................................ 24

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Executive Summary
This career path development implementation guide
provides information, tools, and resources to help ensure
that the Directorate of Science and Technology (ST)
career paths remain current, accurate, relevant, and used
by ST and the Office of Human Resources (OHR). ST’s
career path development work is part of an agency-wide
effort to professionalize the workforce. Professionalization of the Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA) workforce is one of Director Flynn’s top three priorities.1
Workforce professionalization is
necessary to ensure that employees have the technical expertise to perform their jobs at the
highest level of expertise possible.
This guide also supports OHR’s Occupational Advocate/ Occupational Career Program
Manager/ Career Program Manager series-based career management construct (OA/OCPM/CPM)
work. The OA/OCPM/CPM construct was created to implement Director Flynn’s
professionalization effort. As stated on the OHR website, “The purpose of this construct is to
establish a trained and highly qualified cadre of subject matter professionals focused on
workforce professional development.”
The ST career path development implementation guide
has four sections.
• Section 1 is a high-level overview of the guide’s
purpose.
• Section 2 provides guidance for how the ST career
path development initiative can be updated to help
maintain its accuracy and relevancy.
• Section 3 discusses how the ST career development initiative can be communicated to ST
personnel and the OCPM and CPM communities.
• Section 4, includes appendices containing the resources to support this effort.
Section 1. Purpose of this Guide
This implementation guide is intended for use by ST’s
OCPM and CPMs and will:
• Outline the steps and processes required to update
and revise ST’s career path development
information to ensure that the competencies,
behavioral indicators, and training and development
options remain current and accurate.
• Provide recommendation for how ST can continue
communicating career development ideas and
updates to its workforce.
• Maintain a record for how the original career development project was conducted.
Understanding the original project’s methodology will be useful for making future updates.
• Ensure that ST remains compliant with OA/OCPM/CPM construct.
For Your Information
This guide uses human resource
terminology which may not be familiar
to some DIA employees. Refer to
Appendix A for a glossary of frequently
used terms.
For Your Information
The Director of ST is dual-hatted as the
Occupational Advocate (OA) for 0132
Technical Intelligence Officers (TIOs)
and 1300 Physical Scientists. ST
employees in other job series (300, 400,
and 800) need to refer to their job-series’
competency framework for specialty
competencies. Competency frameworks
and the listing of all OAs can be found
on the OHR website.
One of Director Flynn’s Top Priorities
“People: We must grow tomorrow’s
leaders today by giving them the
training, education and opportunities
they need to succeed as they assume
leadership.”

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Section 2. Keeping Career Path Development Data Relevant and Accurate
Career development materials and competency frameworks are living documents, meaning that
their data evolve as organizations grow, adapt, stop working on certain missions, and take on
new missions. Therefore, career development and competency framework materials should be
updated, or at least reviewed, every 12 months to ensure that their information is still reliable and
valid. For example, the competencies, behavioral indicators, and training and development
options should be reviewed to ensure that they continue to advance an employee’s career
development options. This section provides guidance on refreshing the data collected from the
original career path development project. While this section describes the process for refreshing
ST’s career path development materials, Appendix B (Timeline of Events) outlines a monthly
timeline of events for when the refresh activities should occur. The methodology for a refresh of
ST’s career development path materials closely follows the original project’s methodology.
Appendix C (Original Career Path Development Project Methodology) described how data
for the original project was collected.
The original career path development project was rolled out for 0132 TIOs at the start of the
FY14. This gave employees and supervisors a chance to begin working with all the materials:
competencies, behavioral indicators, training and development options, and the eight-step career
development model. The end of FY14 will be an ideal time to collect data for a project refresh.
Hopefully, employees will have used the career path development materials throughout the FY14
and will be able to provide information about what they thought was helpful and effective and
what needs to be changed and revised to keep data current, accurate, and relevant. Even if
employees haven’t used the career path development information throughout FY14, the annual
performance appraisal process will facilitate usage of the materials by both employees and
supervisors. Employees and supervisors will then be able to speak about the strengths and
limitations of the materials and ideas for improvement once they have used them. Appendix D
(Sample Career Path Development Refresh Questions) provides sample questions that the ST
CPM can ask ST personnel to understand how effective the current career path materials are and
what changes can and should be made for their revision. Now all of these questions need to be
asked at the same time.
A refresh of the career path development initiative’s information can be conducted in the
following way.
2.1 Collect Background Information
• Collect all the series-based competency frameworks which are due from the directorates to
OHR by April 2014 and will posted on the OHR website.
• Review the competency frameworks to gain ideas about best practices, including:
o What competencies did other job series use for their occupational and specialty
competencies?
o Should any of these occupational and specialty competencies be included in ST’s
competency frameworks?
• How have other directorates approached career development? What can be learned from their
best practices? Stay connected to OHR and the OCPM/CPM Community of Practice (CoP)
for updates on career development initiatives across DIA.

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• What are other intelligence community (IC) agencies doing in the field of career
development? The Office of the Direction of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) Chief Human
Capital Office (CHCO)2
strives to be a central repository and research center for career
development best practices across the IC. Work with the CHCO to learn about updates on
career specific competencies and new ODNI guidance across the IC.
2.2 Refresh Competencies
Review ST’s strategic objectives to see if the directorate’s mission has evolved since ST’s career
path development work was first conducted in 2012 and 2013. If the directorate’s mission has
evolved, determine what specialties are still core for the directorate. At the time of the original
career path development project, the four specialties were: 1) collection, 2) exploitation, 3)
foreign materiel, and 4) research, development, testing and evaluation. Even if the directorate’s
mission has remained the same, work with ST leadership to understand if these four specialties
need to be modified given ST’s future direction and evolving mission.
Once the appropriate specialties have been determined, ask the office chiefs for colleagues who
can participate in focus groups to validate their specialties’ occupational and specialty
competencies. The focus groups (one or two per specialty) should be open to both contractors
and civilians. It will be necessary to speak with different locations to cover all of ST’s offices.
The focus group should contain a mix of colleagues, both employees and supervisors, with
varying levels of experience.
The purpose of the focus groups should be to
understand if the competencies and behavioral
indicators for that specialty should stay the same or be
changed. The list of occupational and specialty
competencies should be provided to focus group
participants in advance of the meeting so participants
can think about their answers. Questions to ask of the
participants may include:
• What competencies need to be added to this list?
• Of the competencies listed for your specialty, are there any that should be excluded from the
list? Why?
• Should any existing competencies be modified? If yes, how?
It may be necessary to provide the focus group participants with other competency lists found
during the Collect Background Information (3.1) phase.
After running the focus group, work with the POC to review and revise all information collected
during the meeting. If revisions are extensive, it may be necessary to show focus group
participants the revised competencies. Once the focus group and POCs have agreed on the
revised competencies, show the revised materials to the office chiefs for a final review before
submitting the revised competencies to the Director for approval.
Helpful Tip
Throughout the refresh process, it is
important to have a point of contact
(POC) in each office. The POC is senior
enough in his/her office so that
colleagues answer his/her emails and
requests for help and information
throughout the refresh process.

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2.3 Refresh Behavioral Indicators
There are numerous behavioral indicators for each competency. Each competency is divided into
four work levels and there are several behavioral indicators within each work level. Because of
the number of behavioral indicators, it is recommended that validating behavioral indicators
initially occur with only a small group of people and not
in a focus group. For example, have the POCs review
their specialties’ behavioral indicators to see if behavioral
indicators need to be deleted, added, or altered. Once the
POCs have revised the list of behavioral indicators, the
work should be reviewed by a second subject matter
expert to help ensure accuracy. After the behavioral
indicators have been reviewed by both the POCs and the
second set of subject matter experts, show them to the
office chiefs for a final review before submitting the
revised behavioral indicators to the Director for approval.
2.4 Refresh Training and Development Options
Once the competencies and behavioral indicators have been refreshed, review and revise the
training and developmental options necessary for helping employees close skill gaps and develop
their careers. The lists of recommended courses and unabridged training by competency need to
be reviewed because new courses are added to AGILE while others are replaced. If time and
resources are limited, review the recommended courses before revising the unabridged list of
courses.
Because funding for training courses is likely to continue to decrease for several fiscal years, the
importance of skill building through developmental
experiences will remain critically important. It is
recommended that a representative sample of the ST
workforce be engaged to determine which developmental
exercises are successful and why. This data collection can
happen by holding one or more focus groups. The topic
of conversation should focus on what makes a
developmental experience successful and how that
success can be generalized so as many employees as
possible can benefit from these developmental ideas. The
table of Low-Cost Developmental Options3
can be used
as a starting point for discussing which developmental experiences were used and what effect
they had on career development.
2.5 Revise Performance Management Criteria
FY14 is the first time that ST is holding supervisors responsible on their performance appraisals
for their employees’ performance management. This was done to ensure that career development
remains a priority for the directorate and its workforce. One or more focus groups should be held
with supervisors to understand the effects of this new requirement and how it can continue to
productively evolve.
Helpful Tip
If new competencies were added
and behavioral indicators need to
be written for them, draft
behavioral indicators before giving
them to the POCs so that they have
something to react to. It will be
easier, and save time, for a POC to
critique a behavioral indicator than
write one from scratch.
Helpful Tip
If data change during the refresh,
remove old information to maintain
version control. For example, if
behavioral indicators are revised,
the Competency and Behavior-
Based Question Guide also needs
to be revised. To protect version
control, carefully label and date all
documents.

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Section 3. Communicating Career Development
Career development information, materials, and guidance are only successful if they are used.
Therefore, it is important to keep employees, supervisors, and other stakeholders aware of
applicable career development plans and revisions. Section 4 provides guidance on
communicating ST career development plans with both the ST work, OHR and the
OA/OCPM/OCPM CoP. Appendix B (Timeline of Events) provides suggestions for how ST’s
career path initiatives can be communicated to the workforce and other stakeholders.
3.1 ST Communication Plan
In addition to keeping materials current and accurate,
employees and supervisors need to be continually reminded
of the importance and availability of career development to
keep it in the forefront of their minds. In addition to
disseminating information and updates via the monthly
newsletter, ST should have a plan for developing,
promoting, and disseminating career path information to its
workforce and stakeholders. A communication plan should
include all the relevant parties who need are considered stakeholders (e.g., agency leadership,
OHR, OA/OCPM/CPM workers, ST workforce, IC partners), and a plan for how, when, and
what needs to be communicated to them.
3.2 OHR and OA/OCPM/OCPM Communication Plan
ST needs to remain a leader among the OCPM/CPM community. This can happen by
maintaining frequent communication with OHR and the OCPM/CPM CoP. For example,
briefing the OCPM/CPM CoP and sharing the wisdom, models, and tools ST has created helps
ensure that the directorate remains on the leading edge of career development progress. In
addition, ST should look for opportunities to stay connected with the larger IC community’s
career development efforts.
Appendix E is the status of tasks for the OA/OCPM/CPM program for ST.
Section 4: Summary
Career development does more than keep employees engaged – it helps DIA accomplish its
mission by ensuring that employees are as technically proficient as possible. Because of its
importance, DIA conducted a comprehensive agency-wide competency refresh in 2012-2013 to
provide updated competencies, behavioral indicators, and strategies for skill building as a
roadmap for employees and supervisors to ensure that career development was an agency
priority. Career path development information changes as missions and objectives shift and
evolve. Therefore, it is important to review and update career path development information to
ensure that the materials provided to ST personnel remain both current and accurate.
Helpful Tip
The ST monthly newsletter is
circulated electronically throughout
the directorate and is an easy way
to communicate success stories and
other career development program
ideas.

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Section 5. Appendices
Appendix A: Glossary of Frequently Used Terms
Behavioral indicator – An action statement for a competency by work level.
Career lattice – An expression used to describe how to progress both vertically and laterally in a
career.
Competency – An observable, measureable set of skills, knowledge, abilities, behaviors, and
other characteristics required to successfully perform work roles or occupational functions.
Competency framework – The collection of occupational and specialty competencies and
behavioral indicators for a job series.
Core competencies – Competencies that apply universally to all DIA employees inclusive of
each mission category, occupational series, or work category.
Job Series – A subdivision of an occupational group. An occupational group as defined by OPM
is, “A major category of white collar occupations.” For example, the 0132 technical intelligence
job series falls within the 0100 Social Science, Psychology, and Welfare Group occupational
group.
Leadership competencies – Competencies that apply to employees in leadership/ supervisory
positions and describe knowledge, skills, and abilities across the leadership/ supervisory domain.
Mission critical – A competency is mission critical if the mission cannot be achieved in the
absence of this particular competency. In addition, an employee cannot be successful if s/he does
not possess a certain level of proficiency in this competency.
Occupational competencies – Competencies that apply to all positions within an occupational
series.
Physical Science – The 1300 occupational group contains the following job series: 1301 –
Physical Science, 1310 –Physics, 1320 – Chemistry, 1370 – Cartography.
Proficiency level – A description of skill level associated with a competency. Proficiency level
is similar to, but not the same as a work level. There are five proficiency levels: Novice,
Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.
Reliable – The extent to which an assessment is consistent. For example, an assessment is
considered reliable if it is administered multiple times and always gets the same response every
time.
Role – A type of job function. An employee can be in either a management role or a subject
matter expert (SME) role. An employee cannot move between roles within the same position
description. S/he would need to competitively apply for a new position to change roles.

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Specialty – A field within a job series. For example, within the TIO job series, there are four
specialties: Collection, exploitation, foreign materiel, and research, development, testing and
evaluation.
Specialty competencies – The skills, knowledge, and abilities that apply to a specific subset of
positions and provide specialization within a job series or occupational group.
Talent Management – A systematic process for hiring and developing employees.
Technical Intelligence Officer (TIO) – A multi-disciplinary series involving scientific and
technical developments and capabilities, particularly in the areas of emerging and disruptive
technologies.
Valid – How accurate an assessment is and whether the assessment measures what it is supposed
to measure.
Work level – A level of seniority corresponding to a GG level. There are four work levels.
Entry/ Developmental (GG7-12), Full-Performance (GG13), Senior (GG14), and Expert (GG15).

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Appendix B: Timeline of Events for Refreshing ST’s Career Path Development Initiative
Materials
Communication Ideas Career Path Development Refresh Ideas
February 2014
• Provide monthly communication to OHR
explaining new ST developments and asking for
OHR competency-related developments.
• Collect information from ST employees and
supervisors (use some or all questions from
Appendix D) to learn how they are using the
career path development materials and how the
career path development initiative can be
improved.
March 2014
• Publish newsletter article highlighting how some
supervisors are using the Low-Cost Development
Options table to develop employees.
• Analyze data from February’s data collection to
understand what recommendations can be
implemented according to the following
timeframes:
o 0 – 3 months
o 4 – 9 months
o Longer-term initiatives
April 2014
• Publish newsletter article reminding employees to
keep their IDPs updated. Provide examples of how
some employees are using IDPs to advance their
careers.
• Collect competency frameworks and career path
guides from OHR website and ODNI CHCO
• Review competency frameworks and ODNI
updates for best practices. See Section 2.1 (Collect
Background Information).
May 2014
• Publish newsletter article highlighting how some
employees are using the Low-Cost Development
Options table to develop themselves.
• N/A
June 2014
• Publish newsletter article highlighted developments
from OHR’s OA/OCPM/CPM program.
• Implement applicable suggestions from February
2014 survey.
July 2014
• N/A

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August 2014
OHR competency-related developments
• N/A
September 2014
• Communicate with all employees and managers on
holding competency-based performance appraisal
meetings using available career development
materials. Reference the following documents:
o Career Path Guide
o Competency and Behavior-Based Question
Guide
• Implement longer-term suggestions from February
2014 survey.
October 2014
• Publish newsletter article stating that the career
path development initiative will be refreshed.
• Follow steps in Section 2 for revising the career
path development initiative.
November 2014
• Publish newsletter article announcing what focus
groups are being held and any other project
progress.
• See Section 2.2 (Refresh Competencies).
o Work with Office Chiefs to identify POCs.
o Identify how many focus groups need to be held
to refresh specialty competencies.
o Work with POCs to schedule focus groups.
o Run focus groups
• See Section 2.5 (Revise Performance Management
Criteria).
o Set up and run focus group(s) with sample of
supervisors to learn how to continually improve
the performance management requirement
December 2014
• See Section 2.3 (Refresh Behavioral Indicators)
o Work with POCs to review and refresh
behavioral indicators.
o Find second set of subject matter experts to
provide additional insight and review for revised
behavioral indicators.
January 2015
• Publish newsletter article describing the changes
that will be made to the career path development
initiative.
• Provide a town-hall session for ST Federal
• See Section 2.4 (Refresh Training and Development
Options)
o Review lists of recommended and unabridged
courses by competency and work level.

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employees explaining the changes made to the
career path development initiative.
o Work with POCs to determine if these courses
are appropriate.
o Schedule and hold focus groups to learn about
best practices with low-cost developmental
options.

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Appendix C: Original Career Path Development Project Methodology
Appendix C provides background information on the steps the researchers took to research,
collect, validate, and disseminate competencies, behavioral indicators, and training and
development options for the original career path development project. It is necessary to
understand the project’s methodology and what was done to produce these original project data
so that a similar methodology can be followed when revising the ST’s career path development
project and its accompanying documents.
C.1. Benchmarked Best Practices
The first part of the career path development project involved learning about other organizations’
career development projects to discover best practices. By emulating best practices, ST could
save time and resources and focus on adapting proven techniques that would fit with DIA’s
culture and specifications. Researchers collected career path guides and spoke to human
resources experts to learn what types of career development options and opportunities they
provided for their employees and supervisors. The following organizations provided information
and assistance to the researchers:
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – Directorate for Science and Technology
• Defense Intelligence Agency – Various directorates
o Chief Information Office
o Office of Counterintelligence
o Office of Facilities
o Directorate for Operations
• Department for Homeland Security (DHS) – Office of Human Resources
• MITRE – Office of Human Resources
• National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) – Langley Research Center
• National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) – InnoVision Key Component
Researchers reported their findings on each organization’s best practices and submitted the
reports to ST. The information collected from these organizations helped shape ST’s career path
development project.
C.2. Reviewed Competency Frameworks
Part of the best practice research included collecting competency frameworks from these best-in-
class organizations. ST could save time and resources using existing competencies and
competency frameworks because the researchers would not have to create a competency
framework from scratch. The organizations that provided competency frameworks were:
• DIA – Office of Human Resources (OHR)4
• NASA – Langley Research Center
• NGA – InnoVision Key Component
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
• Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) – Chief Human Capital Office
(CHCO)5

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The wealth of information collected allowed researchers to assemble a comprehensive library of
relevant competencies for the ST career path development project, specific to the 0132 TIOs. As
a result, new competencies did not need to be created. Once a library of potential specialty
competencies was created, the researchers met with subject matter experts (SMEs) to narrow
down the list of specialty competencies that were applicable to 0132 TIOs. This next phase of
validating mission critical specialty competencies is described below.
C.3. Facilitated Subject Matter Expert Focus Groups to Validate Specialty Competencies
As stated above, a review of all available competency frameworks yielded a master list of
potential specialty competencies for 0132 TIOs. Researchers conducted focus groups with SMEs
in each of the four TIO specialties (Collection, Exploitation, Foreign Materiel, and Research,
Development, Testing and Evaluation) to understand which specialty competencies were mission
critical for their specialty.*
SMEs, chosen by their Office Chiefs, granted interviews and
discussed their specialties’ mission critical competencies. Focus groups allowed the researchers
to solicit input from as many TIOs as possible. Individual interviews allowed the researchers to
ask detailed follow-up questions to a SME’s responses. In both the focus groups and the
interviews, the facilitators asked:
1. Which competencies are mission critical for your specialty now?
2. Which competencies do you anticipate being mission critical for your specialty three to five
years from now?
Throughout the focus groups and interviews, SMEs bucketed the competencies into one of three
categories:
• Mission critical specialty competency, either now or three to five years from now
• Mission critical occupational competency, either now or three to five years from now
• Not mission critical
Since one of the goals was to include as many TIOs as possible in the Career Development
Project as possible, researchers went to all of the ST’s locations (not including Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base) including:
• DIA Headquarters – Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling
• Corporate Point
• Patriot Park
• Tycon 6
• Patrick AFB by video teleconferencing
• Rivanna Station
Once all of these focus group and interview data had been collected, the researchers edited the
materials and sent the collected input back to all the focus group participants to make sure that
all of their ideas and data were accurately recorded. A final draft list of mission critical
competencies, broken down by specialty and ST office was vetted with SMEs, Office Chiefs,
*
NMO employees were not included in the focus groups because their employees use a collection management
competency framework.

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and the Director and Deputy Director of ST. The Director of ST (DR/ST) approved the 0132 TIO
mission critical competencies in May 2013.
C.4 Facilitated Subject Matter Expert Conversations to Validate Behavioral Indicators
Following approval of the 0132 TIO occupational and specialty competencies by DR/ST,
research was done to find behavioral indicators for all the mission critical competencies. Many
of the competencies already had behavioral indicators written for them. When behavioral
indicators were missing, new behavioral indicators were drafted by the researchers and SMEs.
Because of the complexity of reviewing and writing behavioral indicators, researchers did not
run focus groups. Instead, all behavioral indicators, whether previously created or newly drafted,
were vetted with the existing points of contacts (POCs) and SMEs.
While all phases of developing a competency framework are important, creating and validating
behavioral indicators holds special importance because behavioral indicators are examples of
what a competency looks like in action across work levels. Employees and supervisors will
carefully review behavioral indicators for examples of what successful performance looks like
whether performing career development or performance appraisals tasks. To ensure that the
behavioral indicators were accurate, they were reviewed by a second set of SMEs. Points of
contact from the competency validation stage were the first round of SMEs to review the
behavioral indicators. The Office Chiefs were asked to provide names of other recommended
senior SMEs for a second round of reviews. The Office Chiefs were asked to select senior SMEs
who met the following criteria:
• Considered to be the best and the brightest in their office
• Would be that Office Chief’s first choice to train the next generation of 0132 TIOs
Once selected, this second round of senior SMEs were asked to review and provide feedback on
all behavioral indicators. Once both sets of senior SMEs reviewed the behavioral indicators, they
were submitted for approval, and approved by the Officer Chiefs, Deputy Director, and by
DR/ST in June 2013. Now that specialty competencies and behavioral indicators were written
and approved, the work began of figuring out how 0132 TIOs could use these materials to
advance in their careers.
C.5. Documented Training Courses for All 0132 TIO Occupational and Specialty Competencies
Researchers searched AGILE6
for relevant courses that 0132 TIOs could take to advance their
proficiency in all the occupational and specialty competencies. While AGILE has course listings
from other Intelligence Community (IC) agencies, the researchers called the HR and training
officers for all 16 IC agencies, asking for lists of courses that are also available to DIA civilians.
As a result of this outreach effort, the researchers developed long lists of available courses for
almost every occupational and specialty 0132 TIO competency.
While an unabridged list of courses could be helpful for an employee to see the range of courses
and topics pertaining to any competency, many competencies had lists of courses with over 30
courses. The researchers decided that these unabridged lists would be overwhelming for an
employee. Therefore, SMEs were asked to choose recommended courses from the lists of
unabridged courses for each competency and each work level. The results were abridged lists of

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courses that an employee could take in sequential order as s/he became more proficient in that
competency.
The researchers recognized that formal training was only one venue to use in developing
competencies. As a result, the researchers developed a Low-Cost Developmental Options7
document that lists ideas of on-the-job activities employees can do to develop competencies.
C.6. Educated ST Civilians to Use Career Development Documents
A competency framework and its accompanying materials are only successful if they are used. In
addition to creating career development materials, the researchers implemented a communication
strategy to help make ST personnel aware of these materials. Throughout the development of the
competencies, behavioral indicators, and training course documentations, the researchers
submitted articles to each monthly ST newsletter. The newsletter articles focused on explaining
the career development project, why it was important, and new project developments. Many ST
colleagues already knew about the project from their participation in the focus groups and
interviews. The goal of these articles was to make as many ST personnel aware of the career
development project as possible.
Once the competency framework was developed, the researchers conducted numerous training
sessions for all ST civilians. Although the competency framework was specific to 0132 TIOs, the
other career development materials that were developed were applicable to all ST civilians. ST
civilians who were not 0132 TIOs could use all the career development materials except for the
0132 TIO competency framework. The non-0132 TIOs would need to wait for other directorates
to create competency frameworks for their job series. In addition to in-person training events, an
on-line AGILE course was developed for future reference.

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Appendix D: Sample Career Path Development Refresh Questions
Some or all of these questions can be asked during to understand the success of ST’s career path
development initiative and how it can be continually improved. These questions can be asked
during an in-person conversation, an on-line survey, or in a focus group.
Career Development Documents
1. What career development materials have you used? (Check all that apply)
_ Career Path Guide
_ Competency Framework
_ Mission Critical Competencies by ST Office (Only applicable to 0132 TIOs)
_ Mission Critical Competencies by Job Role (Only applicable to 0132 TIOs and 1300
Physical Scientists)
_ Competency Assessment
_ Community-Sponsored Training Schools document
_ Low-Cost Development Options document
_ Individual Development Plan
_ Selecting the Most Appropriate Training/Development Option document
2. What documents were helpful for career path development? Why?
3. What documents were not helpful for career path development? Why?
4. What can be done to make the documents more helpful for career path development?
5. If you are an employee, have you completed your IDP?
6. If yes, did you share it with your supervisor?
Mission Critical Competencies
7. Are the competency definitions accurate?
8. What competencies should be added/ deleted/ revised?
9. Are the mission critical competencies assigned to offices accurate? Should any be added/
deleted?
10. Are the mission critical competencies assigned to job roles accurate? Should any be added/
deleted?
Mapping Competencies to Objectives
11. If you are an employee, did you map competencies to the objectives your supervisor gave
you?
12. If yes, was the process of mapping competencies to your objectives helpful in learning more
about what competencies you need to successfully complete your objectives?
13. If no, why not?
Behavioral Indicators
14. What behavioral indicators should be added/ deleted/ revised?
Training Courses
15. Are the training courses for each competency and work level accurate?
16. What training courses should be added/ deleted?

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Low-Cost Development Options
17. What low-cost development options have you used?
18. Were there low-cost development options not included in the Low-Cost Developmental
Options table that you used?
Performance Management
19. If you are a supervisor, have you seen the criteria for how you will be rated during your
performance appraisal on “Performance Management?”
20. If you are a supervisor, how are you making a conscious effort to develop your employees?
Career Development
21. Has career development improved in ST in FY14? Why or why not?
Note: Career development does not mean getting more billets. Getting more billets is not within
ST’s control.
Changing One Thing
22. What is the one thing that ST should start doing to improve career development within our
directorate?
23. What is the one thing that ST should stop doing to improve career development within our
directorate?

UNCLASSIFIED
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Appendix E: Status of Tasks for OA/OCPM/CPM Program for ST
Occupational Advocate Key Task Checklist2
,3
HR is asking each OA to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.
TASK DELIVERABLE DUE STATUS 0132 TIO 1300 Physical Sciences
Appoint Occupational Career
Program Manager (OCPM) for
designated series; forward
name(s) to HR
List of Names (via email) 14 June Complete
As DDFor appoint (or re-appoint)
Career Program Manager CPM
for the directorate; forward names
to HR
Email notifications of changes
in CPMs
Ongoing N/A
Review and approve competency
framework(s) for designated
series-based occupational groups
Competency Framework in
OHR-approved format
31 Aug Competency Framework for
tech 0132s completed and
approved by OA August
2013.
Competency Framework for
1300 physical scientists
completed and approved by
OA January 2014.
Review inventory of series-based
population across the DIA
enterprise provided by HR
List of personnel who are
1300s and Tech 0132s
Provided by WFA
Establish routine
meetings/communications with
appointed OCPM(s) and CPM(s)
N/A Ongoing OA briefed 8 April
OCPM briefed 26 April
CPMs notified 6 June
OCPM briefed 29 July by
Michelle and Steve
OCPM briefed 7 August by
OHR
Work collaboratively with HR on
professional development issues
and initiatives
N/A Ongoing All career data and project
updates have been submitted to
OHR since November 2012.
Currently meeting/talking on a
weekly or bi-weekly basis.
POCs: Jerry Jackson, Alicia
Tompkins
Leverage HR Communications
templates to communicate to
respective target audience
N/A Ongoing 6 June CPM email was a
modified version of the
template provided by OHR in
the OA/OCPM/CPM
Handbook
Maintain situational awareness of
designated occupational group’s
capability and professional
readiness in support of Agency-
wide missions (ICW OCPM and
N/A Ongoing 23 August: Coordinating with
Collection Management career
managers to develop training
for NMO.
2
Task lists is from the Defense Intelligence Agency Occupational Advocate, Occupational Career Program Manager, and Career Program Manager Pilot
Handbook dated November 2012.
3
Green indicates that objective has been met. Yellow indicates that objective is in process (as of 5 November 2013).

UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED 20
Occupational Advocate Key Task Checklist2
,3
HR is asking each OA to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.
HR), develop options to address
gaps
Provide to HR draft career path
guides for designated series-based
occupational group(s)
Career Path Guide for 1300
Series
Career Path Guides for
Technical 0132 Series
April 2014 Career Path Guide for tech
0132s completed in
November 2013.
Career Path Guide for 1300s
scheduled to be completed
31 January 2014.

UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED 21
Occupational Career Program Manager Key Task Checklist4
HR is asking each OCPM to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.
Designate OCPM support personnel as
required; forward list to HR
List of Names (via email) 7 Aug Completed on 7 June
Review competency framework(s) for
designated series-based occupational
groups and send to OA for approval
Competency Framework in
OHR-approved format
31 Aug Competencies completed and
approved by OA.
Converting data into OHR
approved format (in progress)
tech 0132s converted into
OHR format August 2013.
1300 physical scientists
converted into OHR format
January 2014.
Regularly check-in with OA to discuss
career development matters (recommend
bi-monthly)
N/A Ongoing Ongoing
Review inventory of series-based
population across the DIA enterprise
provided by HR
List of personnel who are
1300s and Tech 0132s
WFA provided 1300s
ST provided a list of Tech
0132s to OHR on 30 May
Become part of HR-led Community of
Practice for this construct
N/A Ongoing No COP meetings have been
held as of yet
Perform outreach activities with CPMs
both within and outside Directorate
(e.g., emails, briefs) to communicate
series-based occupational group
information
Emails, Briefs, etc. Ongoing ST communication with the
workforce has been
consistent and is ongoing
Leverage HR Communications
templates to communicate to respective
target audience
N/A Ongoing 6 June CPM email was a
modified version of the
template provided by OHR in
the OA/OCPM/CPM
Handbook
Post newsletter articles on using Competency-related
materials
Maintain situational awareness of
designated occupational group’s
capability and professional readiness in
support of Agency-wide missions - ICW
OA and HR, develop options to address
gaps
N/A Ongoing Ongoing
Provide to HR draft career path guides
for designated series-based occupational
group(s)
Career Path Guide for 1300
Series
Career Path Guides for
Technical 0132 Series
September 2013 Career Path Guide for 1300s
(not started)
Career Path Guide for tech
0132s completed in
November 2013.
Career Path Guide for
1300s scheduled to be
completed 31 January 2014.
Assess the workload by addressing if
this role is a full time or a collateral
duty. If collateral, please further
Email to OHR September 2013 Not started
4

UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED 22
Occupational Career Program Manager Key Task Checklist4
HR is asking each OCPM to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.
identify the percentage that the OCPM
duty encompasses (e.g. 25%) for this
occupational series.

UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED 23
Career Program Manager Key Task Checklist5
HR is asking each CPM to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.
In coordination with the Dir/ST, develop
communication plan for the OA, OCPM
and CPM Construct to the organization’s
workforce (e.g., Info Release)
Communication Plan 7 Aug In progress
Establish regular
meetings/communications with Dir/ST on
the organization’s professional
development program
N/A Ongoing Dir/ST briefed 8 April
Regularly check-in with OCPMs
representing your Directorate’s series-
based occupational groups (recommend
bi-monthly)
N/A Ongoing Ongoing
Serve as the SME for employees in need
of career-specific information and/or
guidance
N/A Ongoing Ongoing
Become part of HR-led Community of
Practice for this construct
N/A Ongoing COP scheduled for 27
August
Attend one-day CPM training/kick off
session sponsored by HR
Attend Kick-Off 19 June OCPM and CPMs notified 6
June
Develop and/or revise Directorate
specific professional development
resources (e.g., interview guides, resume
writing, job seekers guide, career
blueprint)
Finished Resource
Documents (in ST these will
be posted our career portal
when complete)
September 2013 Interview Guide and similar
resources in progress.
Estimated completion
November 2013
Competency and Behavior-
based Question Guide to be
completed in January 2014.
Maintain awareness and provide input as
requested to OCPM-developed draft
career path guides and roadmaps for
designated series
N/A Ongoing Ongoing
Perform outreach activities within
Directorate on career development (e.g.,
workshops, resume writing sessions,
career assessments)
Brown Bag Sessions,
Workshops, Seminars,
Training
Ongoing Training on Career Path
Guide for Technical 0132s
scheduled for August-
September 2013. Other
events will be ad hoc but
ongoing.
Assess the workload by addressing if this
role is a full time or a collateral duty. If
collateral, please further identify the
percentage that the CPM duty
encompasses (e.g. 25%) for this
occupational series.
Email to OHR September 2013 Not started
5

UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED 24
Appendix F: References
1
Director Flynn’s priorities:
http://dodiisportal.dodiis.ic.gov/sites/InterCOMM/DirectorsCorner/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=4
2
ODNI Chief Human Capital Office: http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/chco/default.aspx
3
ST Career Development intranet:
http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/dt/DTMS/Career%20Development/Forms/AllItems.aspx
4
OHR Competency intranet:
https://portal.dodiis.ic.gov/sites/ohr/ohr4/careerplanning/competencies/Pages/default.aspx
5
ODNI Chief Human Capital Office: http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/chco/default.aspx
6
AGILE website: https://agile.dodiis.ic.gov/
7
ST Career Development intranet:
http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/dt/DTMS/Career%20Development/Forms/AllItems.aspx

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