Communities of Practice

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Communities of Practice At DCMA
Brigadier General Darryl A. Scott Director Defens
e Contract Management Agency March 2, 2004
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Overview

• Background Information on DCMA
• Knowledge Management Effort at DCMA
• Feedback from the Field
• Communities of Practice, heart and soul of KM
• Community Growth Dynamics
• Successful Practice and Knowledge Transfer
• Lessons learned
• Summary

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What We Do
Drive Outcomes for our Customers!

• Provide Customer Focused Acquisition Support
  Services
• Right Item Quality
• Right Time On-Time Delivery
• Right Price Value for Money
• Combat Support Agency
• Military Operations
• Readiness of Fielded Systems
• Modernization of Military Equipment
• Industrial Surge During Conflict

Teaming with Military Services and Defense
Contractors to ensure that tax dollars achieve
mission requirements
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Full Service Acquisition Impact

• Scope of work
• All major weapons system programs
• 1,173B in Contract Face Value
• 129B Unliquidated Obligations
• 335,000 Contracts
• 16,000 Contractors
• Flight Operations (1200 Aircraft/yr)
• 86B Government Property
• 8B Progress Payments
• 12B Performance Based Payments
• 37B in Small Business subcont. plans

• Span of Control
• 11,000 Professionals
• Over 800 Locations Worldwide
• 125 Major Field Commands
• 1.1B Budget Authority
• 81M Reimbursable/Foreign
• Military Sales
• Combat Support Agency

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Readiness and Combat Support
The Full Spectrum
The Critical Few
Informed Engagement on Spares
Depot Maintenance Timely Return to Mission
Capable Status

• Combat Support Agency
• Focus on Customers Readiness
• Portals to Customers Supply Chain

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Worldwide Operations
DCMA N. Europe
DCMA Americas
.
DCMA Pacific
DCMA West
HQ DCMAI
DCMA East
DCMA S. Europe

Germany
Israel
DCMA IRAQ
New Zealand
Italy
Iraq
DCMA Middle East

Egypt
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Challenges

• We have a world-wide, 365/24/7 scope of activity
• We spend too much time looking for answers to a
  specific question Information overload
• Difficult to locate an expert who can answer to a
  specific question
• We are inundated with too much Information that
  is not needed
• We re-invent wheels

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Feedback from the Field

• Employees wanted
• Ability to collaborate on job related subject
  matter
• Ability to ask the expert
• Permission to try practices that were successful
  elsewhere
• Benefit from lessons learned vs. reinventing
  wheels
• Access to general references as well as task
  specific information
• Ability to find the Right information, not
  inundated with information that is not needed
• (Results from KMC Survey conducted in 1st Qtr
  2002)

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What Might the Future Look Like?
Communities of Practice

• One click access to best practices and
  functional peers who have recently worked issues
  or problems similar to yours
• Easy access to ideas and experiences of peers
• Sharing successes, failures, initiatives
• Successful practices validated by peers, NOT
  directed or filtered by HQ

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Community of Practice (CoP)

• Facilitate collaboration
• Easy to get an answer to a specific question
  because Subject Matter Expert is a member of CoP
• Filter out incorrect Information by peer group
• Provide ways to capture institutional knowledge
  and reuse it
• Prevent re-inventing wheels by sharing knowledge
• Locate and ask the expert
• Improve processes from sharing successful (best)
  practices

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5Cs for CoPs

• Common Characteristics of CoPs
• Conversation
• Collaboration
• Commitment
• Connectivity
• Capabilities

From H. Saint-Onge D. Wallace (2003)
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Communities of Practice

• Shared Domain of Practice/Interest
• Alignment with strategic direction
• Crosses operational, functional and
  organizational boundaries
• Defined by knowledge, not tasks
• Managed by making connections
• Focus on value, added mutual exchange
  andcontinuous learning
• Evolving agenda

you cannot force a plant to grow by pulling
its leaves what you can do is create the
infrastructure in which it can prosper. -
Etienne Wegner, 1999
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Communities of Practice

• CoPs are informal
• CoP Members are motivated by their enterprise
• CoPs are responsible only to themselves
• No one owns CoPs
• Managerial control to produce certain
  deliverables will kill CoPs or the CoPs will
  deliver what they want to deliver.

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CoPs at DCMA

• Started with 2 pilot CoPs in 2nd Qtr 2002
• Business Planning and Engineering
• 21 Active CoPs now, including
• Engineering
• Contract Closeout
• Business Planning
• Industrial Analysis
• Keystone Interns
• 1224 members participate
• 57K hits/mo
• Konnexxions Newsletter
• Interviews with CoP Members
• Success Stories
• Educational articles

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Contract Closeout Virtual Team
Total 64 Major Offices
DCMD East
DCMD West
Major Contract Management Offices Plus 5 Major
Overseas CMOs
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Successful Practices

• Facilitate learning and knowledge transfer
• Stop Re-inventing wheels
• Create Spiral Innovations
• Enhance Employee job satisfaction
• Create better decisions
• Achieves growth of Intellectual Capital which
  is made up of Human, Social, Organizational
  Capital. This results in higher levels of
  efficiency and effectiveness

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Successful Practices

• Successful Practices and Process
  Variances/Deviations are part of the Knowledge
  Management process
• Empowering DCMA employees to reuse successful
  practices and receive benefit - Knowledge Sharing
  and Knowledge Transfer
• Reusing Successful Practice brings spiral
  innovations, which build more opportunities
• Encouraging DCMA employees to take thoughtful
  risks

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Impediments to Knowledge Transfer

• Lack of organization commitment, overt and subtle
  
• Resistance to change
• Failing to communicate the knowledge sharing
  vision
• Knowledge Hoarding
• Technology turnoffs

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Lessons Learned

• Leadership Commitment Critically important
• Organization strategy must include KM
• Technology is an enabler of Intellectual Capital,
  not a substitute
• Cant do it on the cheap - Reasonable funding is
  necessary
• Subject Matter Expert Locator
• Content Management
• Enable Workspace

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Summary

• CoP is vehicle for increasing intellectual
  capital through knowledge creation and sharing.
• By acknowledging the value of communities
• Recognition of membership contribution,
• Support for time commitment
• By providing communities with an infrastructure
• Communication platform,
• Facilitation,
• Information resources
• Resources

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QUESTIONS?
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Attract members And promote engagement
Build charter purpose And value proposition
Enhancement of performance
Content and Container attractiveness
Consistently Bring innovative Timely solutions
Generate Member-based content
Make the community A trusted source of learning
Create a high-trust experience
Community Growth Dynamics
Capture/access Information through technology
Deliver value and Renew relevance
Evolving the Depth and scope Of
member participation
Continues Enhancements Of benefits to members
Promote timely Response to inquiry
and Member-to-member interaction
Member commitment
Build member loyalty
Building of Relevant and Valid knowledge
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Attract members And promote engagement
Enhancement of performance
Consistently Bring innovative Timely solutions
Make the community A trusted source of learning
Community Growth Dynamics
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