DOD stressed the importance of strategic human capital management in its 2006 QDR. For example, it noted the importance of involving senior leadership in this area and stated that DOD must (1) compete effectively with the civilian sector for highly qualified personnel, (2) possess an up-to- date human capital strategy, and (3) have the authorities to recruit, shape, and sustain the force it needs. Within the department, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, who serves as the Chief Human Capital Officer for DOD, has overall responsibility for the development of DOD’s civilian human capital strategic plan and competency-based workforce planning. The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Civilian Personnel Policy has the lead role in developing and overseeing the implementation of the civilian human capital strategic plan. In January 2006, section 1122 of the FY 2006 NDAA was enacted. It directed DOD to develop and submit to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees a strategic plan to shape and improve the DOD civilian employee workforce. The plan was to include eight requirements. These requirements included an assessment of the critical skills that will be needed in the future DOD civilian employee workforce to support national security requirements and effectively manage the department over the next decade, the critical competencies that will be needed in the future DOD civilian employee workforce to support national security requirements and effectively manage the department over the next decade, the skills of the existing DOD civilian employee workforce, the competencies of the existing DOD civilian employee workforce, the projected trends in that workforce based on expected losses due to retirement and other attrition, and gaps in the existing or projected DOD civilian employee workforce that should be addressed to ensure that the department has continued access to the critical skills and competencies needed to support national security requirements and effectively manage the department over the next decade. Also, as part of its civilian human capital strategic plan, the act directed DOD to include a plan of action for developing and reshaping the DOD civilian employee workforce to address identified gaps in critical skills and competencies, including specific recruiting and retention goals, including the program objectives of the department to be achieved through such goals; and strategies for developing, training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the DOD civilian employee workforce and the program objectives to be achieved through such strategies. In October 2006, the FY 2007 NDAA was enacted. Section 1102 of this act required DOD to include in its March 1, 2007, update a strategic plan to shape and improve its senior leader workforce. The plan was to include nine requirements. These nine requirements included an assessment of the needs of DOD for senior leaders in light of recent trends and projected changes in the mission and organization of the department and in light of staff support needed to accomplish that mission, the capability of the existing civilian employee workforce to meet requirements relating to the mission of the department, and gaps in the existing or projected civilian employee workforce of the department that should be addressed to ensure continued access to the senior leader workforce DOD needs. Also, as part of its civilian human capital strategic plan, the act directed DOD to include a plan of action for developing and reshaping the senior leader workforce to ensure the department has continued access to the senior executives it needs. The plan of action is to include any legislative or administrative action that may be needed to adjust the requirements applicable to any category of civilian personnel identified or to establish a new category of senior management or technical personnel, any changes in the number of personnel authorized in any category of personnel identified that may be needed to address such gaps and effectively meet the needs of the department, any changes in the rates or methods of pay for any category of personnel identified that may be needed to address inequities and ensure that the department has full access to appropriately qualified personnel to address such gaps, specific recruiting and retention goals, including the program objectives of the department to be achieved through such goals, specific strategies for developing, training, deploying, compensating, motivating, and designing career paths and career opportunities for the senior leader workforce of the department, including the program objectives to be achieved through such strategies; and specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to ensure that the senior leader workforce is managed in compliance with the requirements of section 129 of title 10, United States Code. To conduct the assessments of end strength and projected trends in the civilian workforce based on expected losses due to retirement and other attrition as required in the legislation, the department used OPM’s workforce forecasting software Workforce Analysis Support System (WASS) and Civilian Forecasting System (CIVFORS). WASS is used to evaluate workforce trends and can perform simple to complex analyses from counts and averages to trend analyses, using such characteristics as employee age, retirement plan participation, and historical retirement data. CIVFORS was adapted from an Army military forecasting model for civilian use in 1987 and uses data from DOD’s Defense Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS). CIVFORS is a life-cycle modeling and projection tool, which models most significant events, including personnel actions such as promotions, reassignments, and retirements. Officials can use a default projection model or create their own, which can be tailored to examine issues such as projected vacancies of hard-to-fill occupations or turnover in specific regions by occupation. The workforce forecasts are generated over a 7-year projection period, using the most recent 5 years of historical data. While CIVFORS is used at the DOD enterprisewide level, the department has not directed the components to use the system. As a result, components use various systems and approaches for their forecasts and trend analyses. For example, when we met with officials from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) they noted that while they had received training on WASS/CIVFORS, the agency was not currently using the program, though they were having discussions to determine if they wanted to use the system in the future. Currently, DLA conducts workforce analysis by reviewing past information to determine future needs and uses a commercial off-the-shelf business software package to assist in the analysis. DOD has made progress in implementing the eight requirements in the FY 2006 NDAA as compared to its first plan; however, as seen in table 1, the 2008 update only partially addresses each of the eight requirements. For example, DOD—through the department’s functional and human resource leadership—identified 25 enterprisewide mission-critical occupations but did not provide an assessment that covered a 10-year period as required by the FY 2006 NDAA. Additionally, DOD provided projected trend data related, for example, to expected losses due to retirement on 11 of the 25 enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. Furthermore, DOD’s 2008 update only included gap analyses for about half of the 25 identified enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. DOD’s update also partially addresses the legislative requirements for a plan of action to develop and reshape the civilian employee workforce. More importantly, the recently established program management office does not have a performance plan to articulate how it will address the legislative requirements. DOD’s 2008 update partially addresses the legislative requirements of the FY 2006 NDAA to assess existing and future critical skills and competencies over the next decade and projected trends of the DOD civilian employee workforce. For example, DOD identified—through the department’s functional and human resource leadership—25 enterprisewide mission-critical occupations but did not provide an assessment of future enterprisewide mission-critical occupations that covered a 10-year period. As shown in table 2, DOD provided assessments of current and future enterprisewide mission-critical occupations and projected trend data in separate sections of its update. Specifically, the update had separate explanatory appendixes that addressed assessments for 12 of the 25 enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. These appendixes included assessment information compiled by OSD and the components. The update also had two separate appendixes with OSD-identified workforce assessments for the department and the components, along with projected trends data related to expected losses from retirements and attrition for 11 of the 25 DOD enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. These data were obtained from the WASS/CIVFORS analyses and are also presented in table 2. DOD’s update provided assessments for 12 of the 25 existing and future critical skills and competencies, which OSD refers to as enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. As shown in table 2, DOD included explanatory appendixes on some of the enterprisewide mission-critical occupations, including information technology management, computer science, and logistics management. Specifically, these appendixes discussed various issues, including end strength of the existing workforce for these 12 enterprisewide mission-critical occupations during fiscal year 2007. The update also contained two separate appendixes with OSD-identified workforce assessments for the department and the components, along with projected trends data related to expected losses from retirements and attrition for 11 of the 25 DOD enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. The update noted that the department had just begun its assessments of the enterprisewide mission-critical occupations. It further noted that, to establish a baseline for its civilian workforce, the department decided to hold future workforce levels for the majority of the enterprisewide mission-critical occupations at the then 2007 level of employment—“steady state”—through 2014. This “steady state” would be maintained by controlling gains like “new hires.” For example, in the appendix that contained the contracting enterprisewide mission-critical occupation, DOD noted that the 2007 end strength level was 19,090 and that this steady state could be maintained at the fiscal year 2007 end strength levels of 19,090 through 2014, by controlling gains like new hires. However, DOD’s update does not include an assessment of its future enterprisewide mission-critical occupations that cover a 10-year period, as required by the FY 2006 NDAA.