Strategic planning and digital transformation with John Whitley

Acquisition Talk

I was pleased to have the John Whitley join me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss digital transformation, the potential for "as a service" business practices to bypass the valley of death, and deeper issues of program analysis and strategic planning. John was recently the acting Secretary of the Army in 2021, Army Comptroller before that, and acting Director of OSD Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE). He's also had past experience in FFRDCs, other agencies, teaching at universities, and started out on the operational side as an Army Ranger. During the episode, John argues that digital transformation is affecting programs at all stages of their lifecycle. For example, the UH-60 Blackhawks are using "digital twins" to improve upgrades and maintenance. The newer CH-53K Super Stallions are integrating digital manufacturing processes, such as digitizing the work instructions on the wrenches to the individual torque specifications for all 11,800 parts. Then you have the Future Vertical Lift program which will start with an unbroken digital thread from the development process. Digital transformation matters because it accelerates modernization of the force more generally, and because it enables new business practices. Software is abstracting a lot of hardware or assets that companies and people used to buy, own, and operate themselves. These products are becoming services that can be bought on demand. Server farms are abstracting to the cloud, vehicles are abstracting to Uber, your DVD set is abstracting into streaming services. Dynamic allocation of resources still requires strategic planning and direction to make sure that important capabilities are available and missions accomplished. This is one of the priorities for John. He finds that strategic direction, such as through the Defense Planning Guidance, is lacking in its ability to affect the services' program build. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com