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(U) Data Acquisition (S3) Works on Governance
FROM: SIGINT Communications
Unknown
Run Date: 07/26/2005
We were able to catch
, S3's Director for Enterprise Operations Management,
between site visits for this interview. (U)
(U) There has been much discussion about governance of the United States SIGINT System over
the past 18 months. Much of it has been from the perspective of the Cryptologic Centers
(formerly known as RSOCs) and mission alignment. Some of the most visible indications of the
work taking place on this effort have been the NSA Build-out, the S2 Redesign and most recently
the information made available to the workforce on the Mission Discernment/Assessment
process and Mission List . Because of the complexity of it, what you know about governance of
the SIGINT enterprise is due mostly to your interest and willingness to ask questions. What
follows is bound to pique some interest.
(U//FOUO) For many of us outside Data Acquisition (S3), it might come as a surprise that there
has been a significant amount of work done on their portion of governance, namely, governance
of ten collection sites and the two field Technical Centers. It seems that
the
Director of Data Acquisition's Enterprise Operations Management (EOM), and her team have
been quietly and efficiently defining and enabling the responsibilities assigned to S3 in Annex C
of NSA/CSS Policy 1-3 . During our recent interview
was quick to say that she has very
clear objectives: to increase communication and understanding, and provide sites an entry point
into NSAW with a goal of minimizing the number of complaints and increasing positive
interaction between the sites and NSAW. EOM focuses on three major activities: Planning,
Resources, and Mission Alignment, with a thread of communications activities underpinning its
entire governance effort. These governance activities are being worked throughout S3, with a
network of people within each functional area specifically assigned to work enterprise issues.
Planning
(U) To accomplish this objective, beginning in February 2005 EOM and members of the S3
leadership began facilitating a series of reviews for the twelve S3 sites . The reviews are focused
on strategic planning and related capability needs at sites across the enterprise. Each review
runs over two to three days with a fixed agenda that is coordinated with the sites and NSA/CSS
mission and enabler offices. Actions are recorded, tracked, and posted on the S3's EOM web
page.
(U//FOUO) EOM is striving to complete reviews of all 23 sites by the end of this year. Each
review examines a site's baseline activities and identifies areas where decisions need to be made
concerning mission functions, site resources, and site issues. Data Acquisition requests other
stakeholder organizations, such as S1, S2, SSG, ITD, I&L, FAD, SCE, NRO, and ADET* to attend
these site reviews and contribute their perspectives. Initially the focus is on "quick wins" -things that can be corrected or addressed with very little overhead -- and then timetables are
set to work on the harder issues.
(U) The plan is to assess the success of this approach in November. If this way of doing business
is working, S3 will continue to review each site every year. So far, the major accomplishment of
this approach has been to provide a more coherent picture of plans for a site and an avenue to
communicate leadership's thoughts and direction.
Resources
(U) One topic of great concern to the collection field sites is the budget. S3 EOM has helped
educate sites on how to submit capability needs and funding requests through S3 processes, and
is working on helping them better integrate their budget plans into NSA corporate processes.
Lack of feedback on sites' requirements has been a major shortfall in the past; EOM has been
looking at various ways to improve this feedback.
Mission Alignment
(C) EOM has one person dedicated entirely to Mission Alignment planning, and uses its network
throughout S3 to work issues, gather information, contribute to the Mission Alignment and RSOC
Build Out Program Management Office (MARSOC PMO), and coordinate with the Cryptologic
Centers (CC). Major activities include:
staffing plans for the CCs and other enterprise locations for S3 functions that will be
performed outside NSAW in the future;
input to Concepts of Operations and Implementation Plans for each CC;
decisions on design and architecture needs to support S3 missions and equipment, and
planning for support to S2 mission elements at the CCs.
Other Roles
(U//FOUO) Underpinning all of these activities is the need for communications. The S3 EOM
website contains the latest site review and Mission Alignment information, in addition to planned
travel by S3 leadership to sites. S3 has committed to regular visits to each of the 12 sites, and
this year will have visited each S3 site at least once. EOM has worked policy issues, resulting in
the coordination and publication of a new USSID SE5300 on governance, capstone governance
documents for S3's field activities, and individual site profiles.
(U//FOUO) According to
the biggest challenges at this point are:
1. better integration of site requirements and resource requests into the S3 budget process;
2. maintaining robust site/headquarters communication, complicated by the fact that sites
are located across so many time zones;
3. identifying S3's responsibilities for equipment needs at CCs to support Mission
Alignment; and
4. maintaining an awareness of the myriad of issues that each site faces and addressing the
most critical.
She believes that S3 leadership's commitment to its enterprise governance responsibilities has
resulted in excellent progress to date in carrying out the intent of DIRNSA's "Where to From
Here" paper.
*(U) Notes:
SSG = SIGDEV Strategy and Governance
ITD = Information Technology Directorate
I&L = Installations and Logistics
FAD = Foreign Affairs Directorate
SCE = Service Cryptologic Elements
NRO = National Reconnaissance Office
ADET = Associate Directorate for Education and Training
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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