NSPS Scaled Back, Delayed

The Defense Department’s national security personnel system remains in a state of uncertainty, following the department’s decision to delay and scale back the first phase of its launch and a court hearing that could result in an order blocking at least parts of the program. DoD, which has seen numerous slips in its scheduled implementation, has put off the startup of “Spiral 1.1,” which previously had been scheduled to start February 1, until April 30. DoD said it “received much feedback that led us to conclude we need more time to focus on simplifying the performance management design, getting performance objectives right, and insuring the system is simple, clear and understandable.” The Pentagon earlier cited similar concerns in cutting back on the NSPS-specific training that it had been rolling out. However, it more recently announced that such training would go ahead in the Naval Sea Systems Command, which has experience with similar systems as part of the DoD laboratory and acquisition workforce demonstration projects.