Coast Guard Acquistion Blueprint Profile

Quantified Perception Analysis

United States Coast Guard

Blueprint for Continuous Improvement Strategic Plan 

October 2010/Version 5.0

CG-9 – Acquisition Directorate

Are you tracking U.S. Coast Guard programs for bidding? If you are, you should be familiar with the “Blueprint,” prepared four years ago by the Acquisition Directorate (CG-9).

Although dated, and probably due for a revision soon, the Blueprint provides insight into what the USCG acquisition directorate is looking for in their procurements.

Performance and accountability are the consistent, pervasive themes of the Blueprint. Understanding and respecting this emphasis will help you in successfully bidding of Coast Guard procurements.

Semantic profile

The USCG Blueprint is of the usual government document profile, ESTJ, but somewhat higher in each of the four vectors than is typical for an average acquisition document. This means that USCG blueprint is more emphatic, more tangible, more intellectual, and more structured that most solicitations, which is unusual for a planning and strategy document. Quantified Perception interprets this to be an indicator that USCG is (or was, in 2010) making a significant statement internally and externally that the approach and methodology of the Blueprint represents a real change that will not be dismissed lightly. 

U.S.Coast Guard

Blueprint for Continuous Improvement

Semantic Profile

Average Acquisition Document Profile

DHS Strategies - Prescient or just lucky?

Quantified Perception has done a semantic and text analysis on four DHS prime planning documents, and some interesting features are illuminating.

The DHS documents used in this analysis are:

·         The 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review

·         FEMA Strategic Plan, 2014–2018

·         Department of Homeland Security Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2012-2016

·         DHS Science and Technology Directorate 2011 Strategic Plan

While the solitary term “cyber” is used 95 times, “biological” follows closely with 86 occurrences. DHS exhibits a perceptive focus on biological threats that predates the Ebola focus of recent months, with “biological threats” used 31 times across the documents, while “cyber threats” is used just 12 times, despite the deeper history and greater visibility of cyber incursions.  Other “threat” terms are used somewhat less frequently: nuclear terrorism (13); climate change (11); terrorism threat (9); and weapons of mass destruction (3).

One of the broad thematic areas is what we have categorized as “community and commerce.” Terms referring to citizens, community, and trade are represented across the documents more heavily than might be expected from DHS. Cooperation and collaboration among different sectors of government and communities are a large theme of the reports. Public-private partnerships, as well as other partner references, are prominent in the language. Terminology used less frequently than might be expected refers to the response phase following an incident. While “first responders” and “public safety” are prominent, alternate terms of response and recovery are relatively sparse.

A final area for attention is the planning and process language. True to the expectations of a government publication, citizen support is prominent in the language. “civil liberties” and “civil rights are used 23 times overall, while “decision making,” “information sharing,” and “best practices” combine for 65 occurrences.

It makes for alluring reading, or you can see the full Quantified Perception report with accompanying tables by on QPLLC.com.

Not that much news fit to print?

The October 5 @NYTimes has five stories on the front page:

How Ebola is changing the Liberian culture of touching and kissing; a wedding between a couple from a sheltered workshop; an upcoming @EdgarAllanPoe statue in Boston; an obituary for a Haitian dictator who went into exile in 19865, and an essay on how the Democratic Party is depending on PACs for the upcoming midterm elections.

Really? That’s all the News That’s Fit to Print today? Other than the obit for Baby Doc Duvalier, nothing of it is actually “new.” Ebola may be the story of 2014 before it’s all over, but how Liberians are learning they can’t touch every family member, friend, and stranger they come across actually isn’t. Is it investigative propaganda that has exposed that elections are funded by…funds? Boston’s reconciliation with Poe – a one-sided affair, for sure – seems more in the human interest than hard news vein.

Comparatively, today’s @WashingtonPost front page: How Ebola got so out of control in West Africa; the upcoming Supreme Court session as platform for Roberts’ tenth term as Chief Justice; an update on missing UVA student Hannah Graham; voter outreach in remote Alaskan villages; and Qatar’s policies of supporting everybody, from U.S. military to Al Qaeda rebels.

Was it just a slow news day?

The Language of the Department of Veterans Affairs

VA Vocabulary

The Language of the Department of Veterans Affairs

Continuing in the analysis of Agency language exhibited on the Web, VA has been treated to a QPL Text Analysis. We are analyzing the speeches, strategic plans, and home page text of VA.GOV. As stated previously:

“One of the essentials of successful Federal business is to understand your customer. The objectives, the priorities, and the policies of an agency are key factors in successfully aligning your approach to their requirements. A winning company will read the Agency Strategic Plan, their IT Strategy, and other fundamental statements found on the Agency website. Meeting with key personnel to elicit their views is one way to get a handle on the agency’s foundations.

Another is to analyze those key documents that are found on the agency Homepage.”

Veterans Affairs has content similar to the Department of Homeland Security, but is a more cohesive agency with a cleaner focus. Three main divisions are a much more straightforward organization than DHS’s 24 bureaus and agencies. Examining the VA web should give a more coherent picture of the Agency’s concerns and language – and help you position proposals and white papers more in concert with the language of VA.

Five of the six most frequently used words across all documents show a specific focus of VA. These words relate not to the mission of VA, but to performance and process. Service and services come in at a close number two, and are accompanied in the top twenty by care, claims, health, benefits, medical, and quality. The implication is that VA is focused on their constituents and on performing their mission for those constituents. Performance is key – and performance measurement is a priority (percent, results, report, improve.) The conclusion to draw is the VA cares about how well they meet their mission of serving veterans.

VA  Phrases

Maintaining consistency with the individual word counts, the top two 2-word phrases are “health care” and “accountability report.” VA is focused on serving their beneficiaries! They are also concerned with fiscal responsibility, and indicator of the financial pressures of their budget and growing constituency.

The analysis shows a tendency towards passive voice – the raw infinitive appears three times in the top fifteen 2-word phrases. This could be an indication of subjugating the Agency to the customer – an idea supported by the three verbs in question: improve, ensure, provide. Three-word phrases are more programmatic, with the emphasis on mission performance. This is continued in the four- and five-word phrases.

One interesting note is the recurrence of “oig” (Office of Inspector General), which confirms the VA’s focus on performance and oversight.

Implications

The structural differences between DHS and VA are delineated by their vocabulary and the focus of their respective languages. This demonstrates the value of “know thy client.” When you are communicating with the VA, emphasize the preeminence of the Veteran and family, and use a more passive voice in your structure.  It’s not about you, it’s about the VA beneficiaries. Talk about measurable results – data and information that support your claims. Everyone will talk about health, and benefits, and claims. Strengthen your position by describing results – data, performance, percentages, and measurement.

Emphasize your integrated capabilities – perhaps you can span the VBA, VHA, and NCA areas, if you are working at the Departmental level. At the very least, be aware of these three components of the VA organization and how they interact now and in the future.

Maintain focus on financial management and performance. Be sensitive to oversight (OIG) and to the need for measureable results, and your relationship with VA will improve.

The Language of the Department of Veterans Affairs

The Language of the Department of Veterans Affairs

Continuing in the analysis of Agency language exhibited on the Web, VA has been treated to a QPL Text Analysis. We are analyzing the speeches, strategic plans, and home page text of VA.GOV. As stated previously:

“One of the essentials of successful Federal business is to understand your customer. The objectives, the priorities, and the policies of an agency are key factors in successfully aligning your approach to their requirements. A winning company will read the Agency Strategic Plan, their IT Strategy, and other fundamental statements found on the Agency website. Meeting with key personnel to elicit their views is one way to get a handle on the agency’s foundations.

Another is to analyze those key documents that are found on the agency Homepage.”

Veterans Affairs has content similar to the Department of Homeland Security, but is a more cohesive agency with a cleaner focus. Three main divisions are a much more straightforward organization than DHS’s 24 bureaus and agencies. Examining the VA web should give a more coherent picture of the Agency’s concerns and language – and help you position proposals and white papers more in concert with the language of VA.

VA Vocabulary

Five of the six most frequently used words across all documents show a specific focus of VA. These words relate not to the mission of VA, but to performance and process. Service and services come in at a close number two, and are accompanied in the top twenty by care, claims, health, benefits, medical, and quality. The implication is that VA is focused on their constituents and on performing their mission for those constituents. Performance is key – and performance measurement is a priority (percent, results, report, improve.) The conclusion to draw is the VA cares about how well they meet their mission of serving veterans.

VA  Phrases

Maintaining consistency with the individual word counts, the top two 2-word phrases are “health care” and “accountability report.” VA is focused on serving their beneficiaries! They are also concerned with fiscal responsibility, and indicator of the financial pressures of their budget and growing constituency.

The analysis shows a tendency towards passive voice – the raw infinitive appears three times in the top fifteen 2-word phrases. This could be an indication of subjugating the Agency to the customer – an idea supported by the three verbs in question: improve, ensure, provide. Three-word phrases are more programmatic, with the emphasis on mission performance. This is continued in the four- and five-word phrases.

One interesting note is the recurrence of “oig” (Office of Inspector General), which confirms the VA’s focus on performance and oversight.

Implications

The structural differences between DHS and VA are delineated by their vocabulary and the focus of their respective languages. This demonstrates the value of “know thy client.” When you are communicating with the VA, emphasize the preeminence of the Veteran and family, and use a more passive voice in your structure.  It’s not about you, it’s about the VA beneficiaries. Talk about measurable results – data and information that support your claims. Everyone will talk about health, and benefits, and claims. Strengthen your position by describing results – data, performance, percentages, and measurement.

Emphasize your integrated capabilities – perhaps you can span the VBA, VHA, and NCA areas, if you are working at the Departmental level. At the very least, be aware of these three components of the VA organization and how they interact now and in the future.

Maintain focus on financial management and performance. Be sensitive to oversight (OIG) and to the need for measureable results, and your relationship with VA will improve.