Digital Strategy 2025 - 2030

DLA Chief Information Officer Adarryl Roberts' portrait in front of the US and SES flags

Introduction

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is the Nation’s Logistics Combat Support Agency and must retain a digital advantage in a contested logistics environment. To remain relevant, we must fully embrace emerging digital concepts and solutions for the betterment of the Warfighter. The Digital Strategy is critical to defining our focus areas and supporting initiatives to drive positive and innovative change for our customers. As a customer, a consumer, or service provider, the strategy is intended to outline the strategic focus areas with a deliberate intent to improve Agency mission performance and capability. The strategy enables the DLA Strategic Plan imperatives, Department of Defense (DoD) strategies, and provides the vision for creating the aforementioned digital advantage for DLA.

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Cover image for the DLA Digital Strategy

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Our Strategic Focus Areas

 

LEVERAGE - ENHANCE - ADVANCE - DRIVE


 

Leverage Digital Ready Workforce

 

FOCUS AREA 1: LEVERAGE DIGITAL READY WORKFORCE

Leverage and enhance an agile, adaptive, and digitally resilient workforce to support DLA’s Transformation Imperatives in addressing contested logistics environments through innovation, interoperability, data, and advanced technology integration.

1.1.   Reinvigorate a culture of mission commitment to assure sustained dedication and mission readiness.

 

1.1.1.  Enhance focus on Warfighter support to ensure mission success and enlighten the workforce on the critical importance of their roles in enhancing DLA capabilities. 

1.1.2.  Focus on employee resiliency and agility to facilitate adaptation to change, sustained performance, operational continuity, and employee well-being. 

1.1.3.  Prioritize innovative leadership and professional development to drive continuous improvement, foster a culture of creativity, and equip employees with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in dynamic environments.

1.2.   Tailor talent management efforts to ensure the workforce remains competitive and capable of achieving strategic goals.

 

1.2.1.  Proactively identify, recruit, and retain a digital workforce to ensure DLA has the necessary talent to protect digital assets, innovate with emerging technologies, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly digital and cyber-threatened environment. 

1.2.2.  Refine the succession plan to revitalize the candidate pipeline to support organizational continuity, leadership stability, and the seamless transfer of knowledge and skills to future leaders. 

1.3.   Institutionalize continuous learning to maintain a competitive edge, foster innovation, and support personal and organizational growth.

 

1.3.1.  Invest in citizen developer cadre to leverage functional expertise in creating custom solutions, which enhances agility, efficiency, and innovation by addressing business needs more quickly and effectively. 

1.3.2.  Develop an agile and effective digital workforce for DLA to swiftly adapt to evolving cyber threats, innovate with new technologies, ensure compliance with regulations, and to remain competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Enhance IT Governance and Operational Success

 

FOCUS AREA 2: ENHANCE IT GOVERNANCE AND OPERATIONAL SUCCESS

Enhance IT governance capabilities to promote digital advancement, and operational excellence by modernizing DLA's IT landscape, streamlining business processes, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies that drive efficiency, agility, and innovation across the organization.

2.1.   Execute effective governance to enable digital advancement opportunities.

 

2.1.1.  Enrich IT governance forums to ensure improved decision making and transparency to the workforce.

2.1.2.  Fortify IT audit posture to obtain successful audit outcomes.

2.1.3.  Strengthen IT policy, process and standards to enhance governance execution.

2.2.   Enable operational excellence to simplify and modernize DLA’s IT landscape and business processes.

 

2.2.1.  Strengthen communication and feedback loop with customers to enhance collaboration for operational success.

2.2.2.  Enhance collaboration for operational success via strategic partnerships with Industry, Academia, Federal and DoD entities to continuously introduce emerging technology and innovation concepts.

2.2.3.  Evolve our role as Executive Agent for Defense Logistics Management Standards to ensure IT interoperability with DoD and Industry partners.

Advance Digital Ecosystem in Global Environment

 

FOCUS AREA 3: ADVANCE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

Advance the development of a resilient, robust, and secure digital ecosystem by integrating innovative and interoperable solutions to enhance global operations, improve decision-making, and enable seamless collaboration between DLA and its stakeholders in a rapidly changing digital environment.

3.1.   Optimize IT infrastructure and architecture to ensure network and capability availability for an effective user experience.

 

3.1.1.  Provide modernized and effective IT infrastructure to ensure quality user experience and productivity.

3.1.2.  Identify and prioritize enhancements to the digital ecosystem to maintain an effective and resilient IT infrastructure.

3.1.3.  Invest in architecture strategies to promote data interoperability, support investment planning, and enhance Enterprise view of DLA landscape for improved decision making.

3.2.   Drive Digital-Business Transformation through interoperable and innovative solutions focused on increasing efficiency and productivity to exceed Warfighter demands.

 

3.2.1.  Incorporate innovative technologies into digital-business transformation efforts in collaboration with our customers to enhance our support to the Warfighter.

3.2.2.  Implement a high-quality testing, documentation and training regimen to ensure new capabilities are seamlessly introduced into the DLA operating environment.

3.2.3.  Develop and transition critical emerging technologies to enable a high performance, secure, and highly capable infrastructure.

3.3.   Ensure a cyber-secure and resilient digital ecosystem to provide uninterrupted support to the Warfighter.

 

3.3.1.  Manage the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access through Zero Trust (ZT), Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM), and Single Sign On (SSO).

3.3.2.  Leverage security control tailoring to streamline the Risk Management Framework.

3.3.3.  Establish a sound contingency capability to minimize risks and operational downtime, and maintain stability in a contested logistics environment.

3.3.4.  Instill Operational Technology (OT) best practices to establish effective and standardized acquisition OT lifecycle management capabilities.

Drive Data and Analytics Capabilities

 

FOCUS AREA 4: DRIVE DATA AND ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES

Drive the development and implementation of data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that enable informed decision making for optimized Warfighter support.

4.1.   Enhance Agency performance by institutionalizing DLA data literacy and acumen and empowering the workforce to interpret and use data effectively.

 

4.1.1.  Accelerate the use of advanced analytics and AI capabilities across the enterprise to enhance decision-making, drive innovation, improve efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage.

4.1.2.  Institutionalize data acumen for the DLA workforce and customers to ensure that all stakeholders possess the necessary skills and understanding to effectively leverage data to enhance mission support.

4.1.3.  Promote Data, Analytics, and AI strategies to increase data acumen goals for the Agency and empower the organization with the knowledge and tools needed to harness data-driven insights.

4.2.   Strengthen digital interoperability to improve forecast accuracy and support to the Warfighter and the Whole of Government.

 

4.2.1.  Improve data sharing and requirements collaboration to enhance forecasting accuracy by ensuring that all relevant stakeholders have access to comprehensive and timely data, leading to better planning, resource allocation, and mission success.

4.2.2.  Leverage AI and predictive analytics in collaboration with the Services to deliver results more rapidly to enhance the accuracy and speed of demand planning and decision-making.

4.2.3.  Increase access to quality data to enable outcome-driven and efficient decision-making based on accurate and comprehensive information.

4.3.   Implement innovative artificial intelligence capabilities to optimize processes, increase efficiency, and drive better decision-making.

 

4.3.1.  Provide sound technical infrastructure and outcome-oriented use case models to facilitate effective and rigorous AI testing and validation enabling reliable, high-performing solutions.

4.3.2.  Develop AI testing, evaluation, and approval processes to ensure a Responsible AI implementation within DLA.

4.3.3.  Engage workforce in Responsible AI solution development and deployment to ensure ethical compliance, best fit, and value-added solutions for DLA's operational environment.

 

 

Strategic Alignment

Graphic showing DLA Digital Strategy alignment with Strategic Plan and other supporting strategies.