Attacking DoD’s Data Problem
The Department of Defense (DOD) needs a single source of truth at the enterprise level to pass a full financial statement audit. More importantly, it needs this kind of self-awareness to be a smarter customer, a better manager, a more accountable steward of taxpayer funds and ultimately, to be more capable, ready, and lethal at warfighting.
As the Deputy and then Acting Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller when DOD underwent its first audit, it was my job to attack the department’s data problem. A look back at the origins of how we did this, by creating the Defense Department Advancing Analytics (Advana) capability, is useful in understanding its future.
Put simply, Advana was to be the desired single source of truth for the Pentagon. It was designed to support the Department’s journey toward a clean opinion on its full financial statement audit. However, that was not the sole intent, and it was also clear from the start that supporting the audit was about much more than financial information and systems. It was about inventory, property, personnel, logistics, contracting, readiness, and cyber security. It was about knowing the defense culture and how to get all elements of the enterprise to willingly and openly share data.
The Advana vision included an end to time-consuming, unreliable, non-repeatable data calls. An end to arguing about the validity, comprehensiveness and currency of data. No more unanswered management golden questions about program performance and execution, operational readiness or battlefield situational awareness. Nor about the location, condition and quantity of parts, supplies, and equipment. It also envisioned a comprehensive, real-time picture of defense finances and a sophisticated tracking system for audit findings and recommendations, material weaknesses and progress toward a clean opinion. All of these things are related, dependent and necessary in one place.
The path to doing this involved identifying the most important, yet relatively basic, questions the Department could not easily answer, determining who owned the required data and then showing the benefits – to the data owners – of providing their information to an enterprise system.
Sounds easy. It was not.
Key to success of the effort was developing a capability that could ingest the data from components as it was and then return to them a tool that could help them better use this data for a range of purposes, including enhancing decision advantage for the warfighter and helping financial managers capture funds that would otherwise be lost. Advana grew from there with the ultimate goal of being that all-important single source of truth.
Things have changed since then, but the original vision remains. Advana has continued on its intended path. It now contains over 700 data sources – reflecting the complexity of the defense information environment that grew up with a warfighting, not a business acumen, focus. It supports more than 55 defense organizations and 76,000 users – with demand that continues to grow. It also has a road of improvement ahead, including infrastructure enhancements to accelerate and simplify use of new AI tools and use cases, application of emerging commercial tools to expedite workflow and support the platform in becoming more flexible, adaptable, and automatic for the decision-maker.
While Advana has stayed true to its original vision, continuing to achieve scale requires a strong champion and simplified acquisition strategy that focuses on maintaining reliable and trustworthy data for a clean audit opinion while delivering warfighter outcomes.
But a few years ago, the team managing Advana was moved from the Comptroller to the new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. This move should be reversed. Advana should be moved back to Comptroller with a small government technical team responsible for building Advana’s data inventory, promoting customer outcomes, executing a simplified acquisition strategy, and managing a consolidated budget. The Comptroller has a unique and independent position within the Pentagon. It has a streamlined organization of very senior staff with a direct connection to the components and to DOD leadership. It is by nature focused on frugal stewardship and efficiency. Money – and financial information and systems – is still the key element of data transparency, analysis, and decision-making. But it does not, nor was it ever designed to, stand alone.
The audit journey is about much more than the ultimate clean opinion. It is about lasting improvements being made to business systems, cyber security, inventory and personnel management, data analytics, operational efficiency and ultimately, the decision superiority that underpins advances in warfighting.
The Department should continue to support Advana as the ultimate single source of truth as it pursues the clean audit opinion while recognizing that the origin story and vision for the capability was always about so much more than financial accountability. It was, and is, about government efficiency and empowering decision making that is crucial to the future of warfare.
Elaine McCusker is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). She previously served as the Pentagon’s acting undersecretary of defense (comptroller).
This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.
