Challenge. The funding allocation process (hereafter, “Funding Process”) at Regional Headquarters of U.S. Government Agency traced its origins to the Unfunded Requirements List (“UFR List”) and was designed to provide Region Program Directors (RPDs) and Installation Commanders an alternative source of funding to Command Headquarters-issued funds through which to purchase programmatic requirements.
The existing funding process was rudimentary, manual process-intensive, and didn’t provide its customers with visibility into its operations or the requisition status. Furthermore, the algorithm used to evaluate and prioritize requisitions was complicated and only understood by its designers. The challenge was to redesign the funding process to be more customer-centric; user-friendly and -accessible; and standardize, codify, and communicate business processes so that all stakeholders had visibility into its operations.
Approach. Using a collaborative approach and employing servant leadership, I led a six-person, cross-functional project team comprised of a GS-15 Comptroller; GS-14 Deputy Director / Budget Officer; GS-13 Business Manager, and two GS-12 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) that:
- Re-assigned responsibilities for qualification, categorization, evaluation, and prioritization of requisitions from the Deputy Director / Budget Officer to other stakeholders;
- Designed and implemented an assembly line-style review process in which primary and secondary reviews and categorization of requisitions are performed by Reviewing Agents to verify compliance with mission, legal, and regulatory requirements; higher echelon direction; contract execution requirements; Facilities and Environmental and Information Technology laws, regulations, and policies; and other requirements;
- Based on RPD requests, included an iterative requisition review process through which Reviewing Agents provide feedback to customers regarding non-concurred requisitions, whereby allowing the opportunity to rehabilitate them;
- Migrated the data platform from Microsoft Excel to SharePoint to provide a central content management platform available to all stakeholders at any time, including value-added features such as a requisition status tracking tool;
- Redesigned the evaluation framework based on a systematic, weighted-average scoring methodology using five evaluation criteria, and included the participation of Installation Commanders, among other voting members of the ESC, to ensure that installation-specific priorities are factored in the portfolio;
- Developed an official set of business rules and standard operating procedures, and established system user access controls; and
- Tested the new MS SharePoint-based Funding Process site and operational processes, provided stakeholder training, and successfully integrated Funding Process with Financial Management operations.
Results. The project team successfully completed and implemented the project in May 2017, and provided training to all stakeholders on the proper use of Funding Process and its content management platform. The Regional Headquarters of U.S. Government Agency Funding Process recently completed its third full fiscal year (FY) of operations since implementation and has funded to-date $5,800,000 in unfunded programmatic requirements during FYs 2017 – 20.
Feedback. “The project met and in many ways exceeded the requirements and the objectives of the task … The final product gave all levels an accessible application to initiate, review, and execute needed requirements … Given the hardship of competing priorities the quality of project management was beyond what [I] was expecting from the project … I truly believe the outcome and final product met all the major areas that was envisioned by the working group and the Comptroller.” – J. Odiorne, Deputy Director, Financial Management (N8B) / RPM, Budget Formulation (Budget Officer) (N81), Regional Headquarters of U.S. Government Agency