Report of the Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations

Volume 3 of 3 | January 2019

Portfolio Management Framework Volume 3

Recommendation 40: Professionalize the requirements management workforce.

Problem

DoD’s RM workforce is responsible for executing JCIDS and component requirements development 

and management processes. The RM workforce is not a professional career like the professional career 

fields that enable the PPBE system and DAS.

Capability requirements executives have expressed concern over the lack of an identified, trained, 

experienced, managed, and resourced RM workforce. Acquisition professionals receive extensive 

training and follow different, professional growth and career development paths providing years of 

experience in each successive job role. They often require a decade of experience to become proficient 

in their fields. RM organizations frequently have military operators who take a few Defense 

Acquisition University (DAU) and Military Service-unique training classes with little to no prior 

experience in the field. Operators typically serve in requirements jobs on short assignments of 

18-24 months with little to no prospect of returning to RM jobs in the future.

DoD has taken steps in compliance with statute to develop and provide professional training to the RM 

workforce by DAU and individual components. DoD has not provided the structure to motivate 

recruitment, growth, and retention of RM professionals as key enablers to effectively identify the 

capabilities needed for operational success.

The short, one-time assignments and lack of successive job roles to provide professional growth and 

experience prevent incumbents from gaining the proficiency necessary to understand the complex 

environment and effectively capture and shape system requirements. Further exacerbating the 

challenge, Military Services have been left to develop their own unique definitions of RM job roles, 

certification standards, personnel identification, and personnel management as RM personnel.

The RM workforce lacks a career path with roles and responsibilities and progressive experience. Each 

Military Service has unique RM definitions and lacks rigor in managing the manpower and career path 

standards. Undermanning and a dearth of RM professional skills and experience exacerbate the 

problems. RM requires a professional workforce capable of doing more than developing and staffing 

program requirements documents to assess the strategic and portfolio perspectives. More can be done 

to align the strategic guidance (e.g., NDS), CCMD priorities, capability gaps, threats, mission 

engineering, and capability roadmaps. 

Background

As of June 2017, there were 3,988 RM billets across DoD. The JCS and CCMDs accounted for 16 percent, 

and the remaining 84 percent were in the Military Services and Defense Agencies (see Figure 2-15). In 

the FY 2007 NDAA, Congress directed the USD(AT&L), in consultation with DAU, to develop a 

training program for DoD personnel responsible for generating requirements. USD(AT&L)—working 

with Joint Staff J-8 and codified in the JCIDS manual—established and mandated the Requirements 

Management Certification Training framework comprising four different groups of RM personnel 

requiring completion of five courses for certification. These groups include requirements originators 

and support, writers and developers, core expertise, and senior-level validators and prioritizers. DAU 

has the authority and responsibility to develop and provide training. Departments and agencies have 
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the authority and responsibility to identify personnel who need training, send personnel to training, 

and certify RM personnel. As of June 2017, 66 percent of the billets were filled by trained personnel, 

21 percent were filled by untrained personnel, and 13 percent of billets were unfilled.

1 DAU provides 

the training and has worked with the requirements community to iteratively update the RM training 

curriculum provided by DAU and has provided development assistance to Military Service-unique 

training. In 2018, DAU began a major review and restructure of the RMCT curriculum to provide 

experiential learning and job support tools. These tools would be essential to rapidly develop timely 

and relevant capability requirements and better prepare RM personnel for the more rapid and agile 

emerging acquisition environment. 

Figure 2-15. DoD RM Billets

Discussion

DoD RM cannot be done effectively by having warfighters serving in ad-hoc roles for a short tour 

before returning to operations. The RM community must have strong ties to the operational 

community. A warfighting operational perspective—preferably from top warfighting performers with 

recent operational experience—is essential to inform the front end of capability requirements 

development and management. Military Services should consider how top warfighters can play a more 

active role in RM. Military RM professionals with relevant operational experience, when coupled with 

their civilian RM counterparts who remain in their jobs longer, could form a highly skilled and 

experienced team as part of a common professional career path.

Some executives believe the loss of systems engineering support for JCIDS damaged the RM process.2

Broad agreement exists regarding the importance of systems engineering analysis early in the process 

to develop requirements, CBA, and enterprise architectures. Early systems engineering would help 

ensure capability requirements are realistic given technology maturity, testability, affordability, and 

interoperability. Executives disagree as to how much systems engineering should be performed by the 

JCS, OSD, and Military Services. Although JCS and OSD benefit by having greater systems engineering 

 

1 J8 2017 Requirements Management Certification Team, Joint Staff Action Process Report to Functional IPT. 2 Information gathered during Section 809 Panel Sustainment Workshops, February–March 2018.
Report of the Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations

Volume 3 of 3 | January 2019

Portfolio Management Framework Volume 3

and technical expertise from an enterprise requirements and architecture perspective, defining 

capability requirements and robust analysis should be done within the Military Services’ and Defense 

Agencies’ operational, R&D, and acquisition commands. 

Conclusions

DoD requires a centralized definition of a RM profession and career for both military and civilians—

and their combination as a force multiplier. It could be modeled on those for the acquisition workforce 

(see Section 5)—featuring career paths and the associated training and experience with increasing 

responsibilities and a growth track of roles—to strengthen and expand a cadre of capable RM 

professionals. RM professionals should act as warfighter partners, and the PM should provide the 

connections between operations and acquisition. They understand the strategic guidance, OPLANs, 

and CONOPs to interpret the capability requirements and the business language for funding and 

resourcing the solutions. JSC/J8, Military Service requirements headquarters, and operational 

commands—with the advice of DAU—should collaboratively define a common DoD RM profession 

including:

§ Growth-Defined Job Roles: Job roles, based on tasks to be performed, should provide 

professional growth when coupled with defined job experience. DoD should define a common 

set of RM job roles for military and civilian members. 

§ Experience-Defined Career Paths: Career paths, with the potential for upward mobility, should 

be defined and incentivized for growth within and across Military Services for the civilian 

workforce.

§ Professional Training and Job Support Tools: This is the most developed component of the 

career professional model across DoD. Professional training and job support tools should be 

based on tasks to be performed.

§ Standards: Professional training and experience standards are essential for each job role across 

a career.

§ Selection Criterial/Targeted Recruiting: To grow a cadre with operational warfighting 

experience and requirements process, resourcing process, and acquisition process experience, 

including systems engineering, S&T, or R&D experience section criteria and targeted recruiting 

are essential.

§ Incentivized Workforce: To grow and sustain an RM profession that is agile and focused on the 

delivery of timely and relevant capability to warfighters, the workforce must be incentivized.

§ Accountability: Accountability is essential to meet professional standards and ensure delivery 

of timely, relevant capabilities in partnership with the acquisition workforce and ultimately the 

warfighter.

JCS/J8, Military Service requirements headquarters, and operational commands—with the support of 

DAU—should also examine military and civilian billets, opportunities for common job roles, 

development of military and civilian job performance duties leveraging skills and experience brought 
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Portfolio Management Framework Volume 3

to the table by both communities, work experience opportunities, both military and civilian career 

progression paths, and the balance of military and civilian billets to provide relevant and timely 

capability. To increase continuity and effect, while reducing turnover, DoD should consider allocating 

more billets to civilian personnel (ideally with operational, systems engineering, and/or acquisition 

experience) who will remain in the organization longer than Military Service members. JCS/J8, Military 

Service requirements headquarters, operational commands, and DAU should mature the training and 

education by creating subsequent iterations of the RM curriculum and adding more just-in-time 

training. These stakeholders should also explore a facilitated approach similar to the Services 

Acquisition Workshop (SAW) with an integrated team embarking on capabilities analysis and 

requirements for a major system. 3

Implementation

Legislative Branch

§ There are no statutory changes required for this recommendation.

Executive Branch

§ Develop a strategy for a more formalized RM profession. This strategy should include the RM 

billets; education, training, and certification; targeted recruiting; career paths; and engagements 

with the R&D community, industry, and innovation organizations across the defense 

community. 

§ Allocate additional resources to RM to include extending military tours in RM positions and 

increasing the number of civilian billets. This ensures DoD is investing in the right capabilities 

and effectively laying the groundwork to develop and produce capabilities that have the 

greatest mission impact. 

Implications for Other Agencies

§ There are no cross-agency implications for this recommendation. 

 

3 A SAW is a facilitated workshop built around a specific acquisition and its team to mentors and guides them in developing their contract 

plans, research, requirements, request for proposal, source selection, and contractor assessments.