As stated in a
previous post, the military could use a lot of help when it comes to management of paperwork. For those not familiar with some of the problems, posts by classmates
Eric Gagnon and
Thomas Wassum introduce some other issues aside from those I have experienced. Here are some of the potential stakeholders for a streamlined, virtual paperwork processing program:
While it seems rather vague, the military member referred to here is the one who is being in- or out-processed. Often, once a member arrives at a new duty location, they find out they missed some step of the intricate process, and they have to call back to their previous unit to request support from one of the offices. This would ensure that once a member departed, the paperwork needed was already complete.
Every military member is part of a mission, whether it is directly fighting an enemy, or otherwise supporting those who do. The amount of time spent managing all the paperwork takes an exorbitant amount of time away from the mission. This is the case both for the member being processed as well as the office doing the processing. Streamlining this will give time back to the areas where human decision-making and action is necessary for mission completion.
For those offices where members are supporting our front-line warriors, having the correct information is absolutely critical to getting the job done. If the right information doesn't get to the right office, sometimes it means people don't get where they need to be, and other times it means people don't get paid. Information is an incredibly valuable resource, and expediting correct information will prove to be priceless to our military!
Initially, this program would probably be best built as simply an SMTP-style sending of information. Further development would include integration with the numerous programs already in-use, such as the Defense Travel System, LeaveWeb, myPay, etc.
great - although "mission" and "support services" sound more like business objects than stakeholders. Stakeholders usually refers to a category of individuals - do you think you could pull something like that out of these two?
ReplyDelete"Support services" is just a general heading under which many offices needing this information are grouped. For example, as of my latest knowledge, the DTS Administrator was required to detach members from their organization before the member could be authorized to travel as a part of a new organization. The deployment office needs to know the member is no longer available to deploy, etc.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to "mission" as a stakeholder, I suppose this could be labeled "Uncle Sam"? It is generally difficult to define a particular individual, as there are so many different missions, and this would essentially help the AF or military in general by saving man-hours.
"Support services" is just a general heading under which many offices needing this information are grouped. For example, as of my latest knowledge, the DTS Administrator was required to detach members from their organization before the member could be authorized to travel as a part of a new organization. The deployment office needs to know the member is no lon
ReplyDeleteThis was an outstanding post Allison!!!!! @Sam Joseph , sometimes our military jargon is hard to get out of our system :(... Hey, new idea, an app that changes military lingo to common phrases used by everyday society :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like lolcatz translation!
ReplyDelete