Our end client, PERS Dev in Navy Command (PERS-PCAPPLAN Dev), sought a more structured approach to both comprehensively assess, and to ensure, that the Personnel Line of Development (PLoD) is considered effectively in terms of workforce planning and management of transition toward the realisation and enduring support of new capability.
Therefore, research was required to provide a framework to provide a robust means by which effective PLoD considerations can be assured and people issues across the other DLoDs can be demonstratively improved. This would ensure that de-risking, accounting, constraints and assumptions are managed effectively during the Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) activity.
Personnel is one of the Defence Lines of Development that is managed through-out Capability development. Although much focus is on CADMID cycle, the Personnel development lifecycle begins during the pre-concept phase supporting early development of Capability concepts.
Working with Royal Navy PERS at NCHQ and Dstl Human factors teams, through the DHCSTC Framework, our research investigated, developed and validated an assurance framework and associated processes to support the timely delivery of ‘sufficient, capable and motivated’ personnel to deliver defence outputs, now and in the future.
The Personnel (PERS) framework has been developed for determining the maturity of the manning solution within the overall Capability development. It has built from existing documentation that is already in use as part of business as usual, and provides an objective means to show how the information that supports the manning solution should mature and align with the other DLoDs maturation.
This PLoD Assurance framework allows assurance at any point in the capability lifecycle, through either:
- Time based checkpoints i.e. alignment to the NCHQ drumbeat and Annual capability reviews;
- Development lifecycle checkpoints i.e. Initial Gate and Main Gate; and
- Audit spot checks of PLOD maturity for capability.
The assurance process is tailored to each stage of the lifecycle so that the correct information can be requested and reviewed to assess the maturity of the manning solution.
Through the use of this new framework and processes and tools, a more consistent assurance method has bene provided by which the maturity of the PLoD can be objectively measured through life. This in turn achieves greater coherence across all DLoDs, which impact personnel and reduce the risk in the delivery of the manning solution during capability Development.
The work carried out has now been pulled through to support the assurance of the PLoD for future Navy capability.
