It Really Is FREE IT TRAINING From The Government! (Part II)

In Part I of this series, I told you how I surprisingly came across free information technology training from the United States Government, No it is not part of the stimulus package. And no, you don't have to buy one of Matthew Lesko's books. You just need to have an understanding of how this came to be, and decide if it makes sense for you to look into the training offerings.


Did You Say Free???: Yes, Matthew Lesko would be proud to tell you about something that is free, as long as you buy one of his books.

How The Training Came To Be

Back in the late 1980's, there was a big scandal involving Pentagon procurement. It was called "Operation Ill Wind." I still remember the FBI coming into our office to talk to certain people allegedly tied into the scandal. The aftermath of this, as well as Government Accounting Office (GAO - now called the Government Accountability Office) audits in subsequent years, led to call of standardization and professionalism of the government procurement work force.

This all fell under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) , which was signed into law in 1991, Subsequently modified in later years, this law enacted specific education and experience requirements for contracting personnel, as well as program/project management staff. The goal was to create a professional "Acquisition Corps" within the department of Defense.

In order to meet the requirements of the law, the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) was created, and is housed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia (about 15 miles south of Washington, DC). The DAU is responsible for the implementation of standards and training required by DAWIA.

The Training Paths

When people talk about government procurement and acquisition management, the focus is often on the contract specialists and contracting officers who negotiate and award the contracts. Often missing is discussion of everybody else who supports the award and administration of the contracts. This includes the program management office (PMO), logistics personnel, engineers, auditors, finance, etc.

So what training paths are available as part of the DAWIA?

Auditing

Business, Cost Estimating, and Financial Management

Business - Cost Estimating

Business - Financial Management

Contracting

Facilities Engineering

Industrial/Contract Property Management

Information Technology

Life Cycle Logistics

Program Management

Production, Quality and Manufacturing

Purchasing

Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering – Systems Engineering

Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering – Program Systems Engineer

Systems Planning, Research, Development and Engineering – Science and Technology Management

You will notice that I have highlighted (in bold) 3 career fields that would be of interest to those who work in software sales and development. Contracting and Program Management would appeal to business partners who do business with the federal government and want to better win and manage contracts.

The focus of this series is on information technology. DAWAI sets the following levels for information technology professionals.

A class with a (R) after it is a residential class, while the others should be available on-line. Classes in bold are the core certification requirements for each level.

Level I

ACQ 101 Fundamentals of Systems Acquisition Management (Level I)

IRM 101 Basic Information Systems Acquisition or SAM 101 Basic Software Acquisition

BCF 103 Fundamentals of Business Financial Management

CLB 007 Cost Analysis

CLB 016 Introduction to Earned Value Management

CLE 004 Introduction to Lean Enterprise Concepts

CLE 015 Continuous Process Improvement Familiarization

CLE 020 Enterprise Architecture

SYS 101 Fundamentals of Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering

TST 102 Fundamentals of Test and Evaluation

Level II

ACQ 201A Intermediate Systems Acquisition Management, Part A

ACQ 201B Intermediate Systems Acquisition Management, Part B (R)

IRM 201 Intermediate Information Systems Acquisition (R)

SAM 201 Intermediate Software Acquisition Management (R)

BCF 102 Fundamentals of Earned Value Management

BCF 107 Applied Cost Analysis (R) (replaces BCF 101)

CLE 003 Technical Reviews

CLE 006 Enterprise Integration Overview

CLE 007 Lean Six Sigma for Manufacturing

CLE 016 Outcome-Based Performance Measures

CLE 017 Technical Planning

CLE 025 Information Assurance for Acquisition Professionals

CLE 301 Reliability and Maintainability

CLL 015 Business Case Analysis

CLM 029 Net-Ready Key Performance Parameter (NR-KPP)

CLM 101 Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) (USAF Process)

LOG 101 Acquisition Logistics Fundamentals

SYS 202 Intermediate Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering, Part I

Level III

IRM 304 Advanced Information Systems Acquisition (R)

Functional Training SAM 301 Advanced Software Acquisition Management (R)

CLE 021 Technology Readiness Assessments

CLL 008 Designing for Supportability in DoD Systems

CLL 014 Joint Systems Integrated Support Strategies (JSISS)

CLM 014 IPT Management and Leadership

LOG 200 Intermediate Acquisition Logistics, Part A

LOG 203 Reliability and Maintainability

PMT 250 Program Management Tools

PMT 352A Program Management Office Course, Part A

SYS 203 Intermediate Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering, Part II (R)

Phew, are you tuckered out yet?

Coming next...In the next part, I will review SAM 101 Basic Software Acquisition, the class I recently completed.

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