Army Finally Getting a Handle on Soldier Data?

For as long as the army has had personnel and financial systems (and even before that), there have been various “silos" which purported to maintain the same data elements.  In all cases, each silo proprietor assumed and/or insisted that their "version" of a soldier's data element was a true and correct description of that soldier.  Meanwhile, back in the trenches, soldiers, finance and AG types and PSNCOs struggled with the effects of real-world silo data and the discrepancies between each silo's "version" of that data.

Huge systems projects in the finance and personnel communities ultimately foundered on the rocks of these version discrepancies.  This phenomenon became known as “data fratricide” and was among the chief causes of the demise of the recent DIMHRS project’s attmpts to integrate the financial and personnel silos.

It appears that the Army has finally decided to bite the bullet and fix the problem.  This is being done under the umbrella of the   Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army (IPPS-A) project (aka, “son of DIMMHRS, a example of a failed 12 year project, costing a bullion dollars).  It is anything but a technology project.  Yes, some technology is being used to be sure, but the problem being solved is much more a political/cultural problem than a technological problem.  If it were a simply technological problem (as past efforts have treated it), it would have been solved long ago.

Our own COL Roy Wallace (yes, J Claud’s son) has played a significant role in guiding this effort along and it certainly looks like there is finally light at the end of a long and tortuous tunnel.  Roy sent us this link to an interview with the current project manager, COL Darby McNulty, IPPS-A project manager.  Check out the interview here.