The shifting nature of the geopolitical landscape and technological innovations have fundamentally changed the character of warfare. In response to this reality, the Department of Defense (DoD) has developed an operational concept of Multidomain Operations which integrates the land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains into a cohesive strategy – a massive undertaking in organizational transformation for each service in the DoD.
As the DoD transitions to evolve, re-organize, and integrate itself through the Multidomain Operations concept, the complexity and scale of modern warfare necessitate a comprehensive and structured approach to planning, executing, monitoring, and adjusting and adapting not just the daily operational tasks of integrating five warfare domains, but also rapid prototyping and deployment of new technologies, creation and management of new programs, and development of new technical skills.
While modernization discussions focus heavily on technological advancements and tactical prowess, success also requires a strategic investment in the training and education necessary for developing and applying sound program and project management skills, practices, and principles across the entire workforce, including both civilian and uniformed military personnel.
Understanding Multi-Domain Operations
Multidomain Operations represents a significant shift in military strategy. Adversaries have developed anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategies that leverage advancements in technology and unconventional tactics to create complex, multi-layered capabilities. Multidomain Operations aims to counter these threats by ensuring seamless coordination and integration across the five warfare domains to achieve recognition as a formidable foe and gain and maintain competitive advantages while also denying those same advantages to our adversaries.
Implementing multidomain operations involves significant challenges, including logistical feasibility, sustainment architecture, and organizational structure. The complexity of coordinating operations across multiple domains requires a high level of precision, resource optimization, and resilience, as well as adaptability and organizational agility. To achieve all of this successfully within time and budget constraints, both leadership and project team members must know how to proactively engage stakeholders and effectively manage scope, procurements, schedules, quality, budgets, and risks.
Project Management in Multidomain Operations
Project Management Principles
The U.S. military services will need to finance several critical initiatives, including modernization of the workforce and equipment, supply chain risk management, and organizational change management to be successful in establishing the desired competitive advantages with multidomain operations. The application of project management principles and practices can significantly increase the chances of success in each of these areas.
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)®, 7th Edition, published by the Project Management Institute (PMI)® in 2021, outlines twelve (12) project management principles that are directly applicable to the transformation currently taking place across the DoD:
Stewardship: Be diligent, respectful, and caring stewards of the mission and resources.
Team: Build a culture of accountability and respect within and across teams.
Stakeholders: Proactively engage stakeholders to ensure project teams meet their needs and expectations.
Value: Focus on delivering the minimum amount of value in the shortest period of time, and iteratively and incrementally add capacity and/or capability on a “just in time” basis.
Systems Thinking: Recognize and respond to system interactions and dependencies, optimizing the whole instead of just a single component.
Leadership: Demonstrate leadership behaviors that inspire and motivate teams across the enterprise.
Tailoring: Tailor processes and practices based on the specific contexts and needs.
Quality: Build quality into processes and deliverables from the outset, and ensure continuous improvement is built into management processes throughout project lifecycles.
Complexity: Navigate and manage complexity effectively through implementation of adaptive management workflows and tools, effective communication and stakeholder management, transparency and information sharing, and integrated decision-making.
Risk: Optimizing risk responses to minimize negative threat impacts and maximize the ability to leverage positive opportunities.
Adaptability and Resiliency: Embrace adaptability and resilience to quickly respond to changes in competitive landscapes, economic conditions, and customer needs.
Change: Embrace and enable change to achieve the envisioned future state.
Key Initiatives for Multidomain Operations
There are several key initiatives for the military services within the DoD to successfully integrate with and conduct joint campaigns to deny adversarial advantages.
1. Modernization of the Workforce
Much of the discussion on workforce development with regards to Multidomain Operations has focused on increasing technical capacity to implement and leverage emerging technologies. However, there will be a large portion of the workforce who will be responsible for managing the scope, schedules, and budgets to ensure that the technologies are available in the first place.
Some of the project management principles that are directly applicable to the DoD’s success in this initiative are: Training, Stakeholders, and Tailoring.
Training: Equipping DoD personnel with project management skills enhances their ability to plan, execute, and adapt to navigate the complexities of modern warfare.
Stakeholders: Sound project management practices emphasize proactive stakeholder engagement, which ensures alignment with the organization’s strategic goals and objectives, continuously manages expectations and secures buy-in, and enables programs and projects to “pivot in flight” as situations and contexts change.
Tailoring: Traditional project management training is antiquated. Applying the principle of tailoring processes and practices based on specific context and needs ensures that modernization efforts are relevant and effective. Modern project management methods, knowledge, and tooling are required to implement the appropriate processes and techniques for each unique project environment to enable organizational agility and resilience.
2. Supply Chain Risk Management
The DoD will need to transform its sustainment architecture to be more adaptive and resilient, which will require sound supply chain risk management practices.
A few of the project management principles that are associated with this need are: Complexity, Risk; Systems Thinking; and Quality.
Complexity: Human behavior, system interactions, uncertainty, and ambiguity create complexity in our project environments. Project teams and leadership must be able to continuously monitor and assess events or conditions which affect team performance and project outcomes.
Risk: A mature project management capability provides structured risk management processes to proactively identify potential risks, develop appropriate risk response strategies, and continuously monitor and reassess the risk environment, minimizing negative threats and enhancing the ability to leverage positive opportunities.
Systems Thinking: Effective resource management is critical in multidomain operations, where the availability of assets can fluctuate. Project management training techniques such as resource leveling and smoothing, as well as resource estimation and allocation, to ensure optimal use of equipment, finances, and personnel.
Quality: Highly trained project managers ensure standardized procedures and continuous improvement through feedback and lessons learned. Regular quality checks and audits ensure stakeholder satisfaction with deliverables, compliance requirements and standards are met, rework is limited, and costs of waste are reduced.
3. Organizational Change Management
According to a study conducted by Prosci®, published in their 2018 edition of “Best Practices in Change Management, most organizations think of organizational change management as just training and communications, completely missing the need for project management skills.
Project management principles such as Stewardship, Leadership, Systems Thinking, and Adaptability and Resiliency are directly applicable to organizational change management.
Stewardship: The top performing project professionals responsibly to carry out their project activities with integrity, care, and trustworthiness, and maintain compliance with internal and external policies, laws, rules, and regulations. This principle promotes a commitment to taking into consideration the financial, social, and environmental impacts of the projects they support.
Leadership: Demonstrating leadership behaviors that inspire and motivate teams is crucial for managing organizational change. Project management practices emphasize the importance of strong leadership in guiding teams through transitions and ensuring that everyone is committed to the change process.
Systems Thinking: Recognizing and responding to system interactions and dependencies ensures that organizational changes are implemented effectively. Skilled project managers promote holistic, or systems, thinking, which helps in understanding the broader impact of changes in individual teams as well as across an organization or enterprise, ensuring that all aspects of the organization are aligned with the new direction to “optimize the whole”.
Adaptability and Resiliency: The competitive landscape is not static – our adversaries will continuously learn and evolve over time. The dynamic nature of the geopolitical competitive landscape requires adaptability, organizational agility, and resilience. Agile/lean, iterative, incremental, and hybrid project management approaches emphasize rapid response, continuous improvement, and efficiency. These principles align well with the needs of today’s dynamic military operations, allowing for quick adjustments in response to rapidly changing conditions.
Recommendations for Implementation
Establish Comprehensive Training Programs: Make project management a strategic core competency for the workforce by implementing comprehensive project management training programs tailored to the unique needs of military operations for all Department of the Defense personnel regardless of rank, position, and or occupational specialty.
Integrate Project Management into Professional Development: Project management is a team effort, and the more people know about project management the better teams will operate. Ensure project management principles are embedded into Army culture with professional development curricula for all ranks and positions within the Army.
Leverage Advanced Technologies: Invest in advanced project management tools and technologies, such as AI-driven analytics, to support efficient planning, execution, and monitoring of operations.
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Encourage a culture that values continuous improvement, feedback, and adaptation. Use lessons learned from past operations to refine project management practices.
Promote Leadership in Project Management: Recognize and promote leaders who demonstrate strong project management skills and the ability to lead their teams to achieve the strategic objectives of multidomain operations.
Conclusion
Investing in project management training across the entire workforce, not just the people in leadership positions, will be crucial for the success of multidomain operations. By making project management a strategic core competency, the DoD can ensure it remains prepared to meet the challenges of the future, delivering successful outcomes in any operational environment.
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