DIA TIO Career Path Implementation Guide_2014

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Defense Intelligence Agency

CAREER PATH DEVELOPMENT

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

Committed to Excellence in Defense of the Nation

One Mission. One Team. One Agency.

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Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 3

Section 1. Purpose of this Guide ..................................................................................................... 3

Section 2. Keeping Career Path Development Data Relevant and Accurate .................................. 4

2.1 Collect Background Information .......................................................................................... 4

2.2 Refresh Competencies .......................................................................................................... 5

2.3 Refresh Behavioral Indicators .............................................................................................. 6

2.4 Refresh Training and Development Options ........................................................................ 6

2.5 Revise Performance Management Criteria ........................................................................... 6

Section 3. Communicating Career Development ............................................................................ 7

3.1 ST Communication Plan ....................................................................................................... 7

3.2 OHR and OA/OCPM/OCPM Communication Plan ............................................................. 7

Section 4: Summary ........................................................................................................................ 7

Section 5. Appendices ..................................................................................................................... 8

Appendix A: Glossary of Frequently Used Terms ..................................................................... 8

Appendix B: Timeline of Events for Refreshing ST’s Career Path Development Initiative

Materials ................................................................................................................................... 10

Appendix C: Original Career Path Development Project Methodology .................................. 13

Appendix D: Sample Career Path Development Refresh Questions ........................................ 17

Appendix E: Status of Tasks for OA/OCPM/CPM Program for ST ........................................ 19

Appendix F: References ............................................................................................................ 24

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Executive Summary This career path development implementation guide

provides information, tools, and resources to help ensure

that the Directorate of Science and Technology (ST)

career paths remain current, accurate, relevant, and used

by ST and the Office of Human Resources (OHR). ST’s

career path development work is part of an agency-wide

effort to professionalize the workforce. Professionalization of the Defense Intelligence Agency

(DIA) workforce is one of Director Flynn’s top three priorities.1 Workforce professionalization is

necessary to ensure that employees have the technical expertise to perform their jobs at the

highest level of expertise possible.

This guide also supports OHR’s Occupational Advocate/ Occupational Career Program

Manager/ Career Program Manager series-based career management construct (OA/OCPM/CPM)

work. The OA/OCPM/CPM construct was created to implement Director Flynn’s

professionalization effort. As stated on the OHR website, “The purpose of this construct is to

establish a trained and highly qualified cadre of subject matter professionals focused on

workforce professional development.”

The ST career path development implementation guide

has four sections.

• Section 1 is a high-level overview of the guide’s

purpose.

• Section 2 provides guidance for how the ST career

path development initiative can be updated to help

maintain its accuracy and relevancy.

• Section 3 discusses how the ST career development initiative can be communicated to ST

personnel and the OCPM and CPM communities.

• Section 4, includes appendices containing the resources to support this effort.

Section 1. Purpose of this Guide This implementation guide is intended for use by ST’s

OCPM and CPMs and will:

• Outline the steps and processes required to update

and revise ST’s career path development

information to ensure that the competencies,

behavioral indicators, and training and development

options remain current and accurate.

• Provide recommendation for how ST can continue

communicating career development ideas and

updates to its workforce.

• Maintain a record for how the original career development project was conducted.

Understanding the original project’s methodology will be useful for making future updates.

• Ensure that ST remains compliant with OA/OCPM/CPM construct.

For Your Information

This guide uses human resource

terminology which may not be familiar

to some DIA employees. Refer to

Appendix A for a glossary of frequently

used terms.

For Your Information

The Director of ST is dual-hatted as the

Occupational Advocate (OA) for 0132

Technical Intelligence Officers (TIOs)

and 1300 Physical Scientists. ST

employees in other job series (300, 400,

and 800) need to refer to their job-series’

competency framework for specialty

competencies. Competency frameworks

and the listing of all OAs can be found

on the OHR website.

One of Director Flynn’s Top Priorities “People: We must grow tomorrow’s

leaders today by giving them the

training, education and opportunities

they need to succeed as they assume

leadership.”

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Section 2. Keeping Career Path Development Data Relevant and Accurate Career development materials and competency frameworks are living documents, meaning that

their data evolve as organizations grow, adapt, stop working on certain missions, and take on

new missions. Therefore, career development and competency framework materials should be

updated, or at least reviewed, every 12 months to ensure that their information is still reliable and

valid. For example, the competencies, behavioral indicators, and training and development

options should be reviewed to ensure that they continue to advance an employee’s career

development options. This section provides guidance on refreshing the data collected from the

original career path development project. While this section describes the process for refreshing

ST’s career path development materials, Appendix B (Timeline of Events) outlines a monthly

timeline of events for when the refresh activities should occur. The methodology for a refresh of

ST’s career development path materials closely follows the original project’s methodology.

Appendix C (Original Career Path Development Project Methodology) described how data

for the original project was collected.

The original career path development project was rolled out for 0132 TIOs at the start of the

FY14. This gave employees and supervisors a chance to begin working with all the materials:

competencies, behavioral indicators, training and development options, and the eight-step career

development model. The end of FY14 will be an ideal time to collect data for a project refresh.

Hopefully, employees will have used the career path development materials throughout the FY14

and will be able to provide information about what they thought was helpful and effective and

what needs to be changed and revised to keep data current, accurate, and relevant. Even if

employees haven’t used the career path development information throughout FY14, the annual

performance appraisal process will facilitate usage of the materials by both employees and

supervisors. Employees and supervisors will then be able to speak about the strengths and

limitations of the materials and ideas for improvement once they have used them. Appendix D

(Sample Career Path Development Refresh Questions) provides sample questions that the ST

CPM can ask ST personnel to understand how effective the current career path materials are and

what changes can and should be made for their revision. Now all of these questions need to be

asked at the same time.

A refresh of the career path development initiative’s information can be conducted in the

following way.

2.1 Collect Background Information

• Collect all the series-based competency frameworks which are due from the directorates to

OHR by April 2014 and will posted on the OHR website.

• Review the competency frameworks to gain ideas about best practices, including:

o What competencies did other job series use for their occupational and specialty

competencies?

o Should any of these occupational and specialty competencies be included in ST’s

competency frameworks?

• How have other directorates approached career development? What can be learned from their

best practices? Stay connected to OHR and the OCPM/CPM Community of Practice (CoP)

for updates on career development initiatives across DIA.

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• What are other intelligence community (IC) agencies doing in the field of career

development? The Office of the Direction of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) Chief Human

Capital Office (CHCO)2 strives to be a central repository and research center for career

development best practices across the IC. Work with the CHCO to learn about updates on

career specific competencies and new ODNI guidance across the IC.

2.2 Refresh Competencies

Review ST’s strategic objectives to see if the directorate’s mission has evolved since ST’s career

path development work was first conducted in 2012 and 2013. If the directorate’s mission has

evolved, determine what specialties are still core for the directorate. At the time of the original

career path development project, the four specialties were: 1) collection, 2) exploitation, 3)

foreign materiel, and 4) research, development, testing and evaluation. Even if the directorate’s

mission has remained the same, work with ST leadership to understand if these four specialties

need to be modified given ST’s future direction and evolving mission.

Once the appropriate specialties have been determined, ask the office chiefs for colleagues who

can participate in focus groups to validate their specialties’ occupational and specialty

competencies. The focus groups (one or two per specialty) should be open to both contractors

and civilians. It will be necessary to speak with different locations to cover all of ST’s offices.

The focus group should contain a mix of colleagues, both employees and supervisors, with

varying levels of experience.

The purpose of the focus groups should be to

understand if the competencies and behavioral

indicators for that specialty should stay the same or be

changed. The list of occupational and specialty

competencies should be provided to focus group

participants in advance of the meeting so participants

can think about their answers. Questions to ask of the

participants may include:

• What competencies need to be added to this list?

• Of the competencies listed for your specialty, are there any that should be excluded from the

list? Why?

• Should any existing competencies be modified? If yes, how?

It may be necessary to provide the focus group participants with other competency lists found

during the Collect Background Information (3.1) phase.

After running the focus group, work with the POC to review and revise all information collected

during the meeting. If revisions are extensive, it may be necessary to show focus group

participants the revised competencies. Once the focus group and POCs have agreed on the

revised competencies, show the revised materials to the office chiefs for a final review before

submitting the revised competencies to the Director for approval.

Helpful Tip

Throughout the refresh process, it is

important to have a point of contact

(POC) in each office. The POC is senior

enough in his/her office so that

colleagues answer his/her emails and

requests for help and information

throughout the refresh process.

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2.3 Refresh Behavioral Indicators

There are numerous behavioral indicators for each competency. Each competency is divided into

four work levels and there are several behavioral indicators within each work level. Because of

the number of behavioral indicators, it is recommended that validating behavioral indicators

initially occur with only a small group of people and not

in a focus group. For example, have the POCs review

their specialties’ behavioral indicators to see if behavioral

indicators need to be deleted, added, or altered. Once the

POCs have revised the list of behavioral indicators, the

work should be reviewed by a second subject matter

expert to help ensure accuracy. After the behavioral

indicators have been reviewed by both the POCs and the

second set of subject matter experts, show them to the

office chiefs for a final review before submitting the

revised behavioral indicators to the Director for approval.

2.4 Refresh Training and Development Options

Once the competencies and behavioral indicators have been refreshed, review and revise the

training and developmental options necessary for helping employees close skill gaps and develop

their careers. The lists of recommended courses and unabridged training by competency need to

be reviewed because new courses are added to AGILE while others are replaced. If time and

resources are limited, review the recommended courses before revising the unabridged list of

courses.

Because funding for training courses is likely to continue to decrease for several fiscal years, the

importance of skill building through developmental

experiences will remain critically important. It is

recommended that a representative sample of the ST

workforce be engaged to determine which developmental

exercises are successful and why. This data collection can

happen by holding one or more focus groups. The topic

of conversation should focus on what makes a

developmental experience successful and how that

success can be generalized so as many employees as

possible can benefit from these developmental ideas. The

table of Low-Cost Developmental Options3 can be used

as a starting point for discussing which developmental experiences were used and what effect

they had on career development.

2.5 Revise Performance Management Criteria

FY14 is the first time that ST is holding supervisors responsible on their performance appraisals

for their employees’ performance management. This was done to ensure that career development

remains a priority for the directorate and its workforce. One or more focus groups should be held

with supervisors to understand the effects of this new requirement and how it can continue to

productively evolve.

Helpful Tip If new competencies were added

and behavioral indicators need to

be written for them, draft

behavioral indicators before giving

them to the POCs so that they have

something to react to. It will be

easier, and save time, for a POC to

critique a behavioral indicator than

write one from scratch.

Helpful Tip

If data change during the refresh,

remove old information to maintain

version control. For example, if

behavioral indicators are revised,

the Competency and Behavior-

Based Question Guide also needs

to be revised. To protect version

control, carefully label and date all

documents.

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Section 3. Communicating Career Development Career development information, materials, and guidance are only successful if they are used.

Therefore, it is important to keep employees, supervisors, and other stakeholders aware of

applicable career development plans and revisions. Section 4 provides guidance on

communicating ST career development plans with both the ST work, OHR and the

OA/OCPM/OCPM CoP. Appendix B (Timeline of Events) provides suggestions for how ST’s

career path initiatives can be communicated to the workforce and other stakeholders.

3.1 ST Communication Plan

In addition to keeping materials current and accurate,

employees and supervisors need to be continually reminded

of the importance and availability of career development to

keep it in the forefront of their minds. In addition to

disseminating information and updates via the monthly

newsletter, ST should have a plan for developing,

promoting, and disseminating career path information to its

workforce and stakeholders. A communication plan should

include all the relevant parties who need are considered stakeholders (e.g., agency leadership,

OHR, OA/OCPM/CPM workers, ST workforce, IC partners), and a plan for how, when, and

what needs to be communicated to them.

3.2 OHR and OA/OCPM/OCPM Communication Plan

ST needs to remain a leader among the OCPM/CPM community. This can happen by

maintaining frequent communication with OHR and the OCPM/CPM CoP. For example,

briefing the OCPM/CPM CoP and sharing the wisdom, models, and tools ST has created helps

ensure that the directorate remains on the leading edge of career development progress. In

addition, ST should look for opportunities to stay connected with the larger IC community’s

career development efforts.

Appendix E is the status of tasks for the OA/OCPM/CPM program for ST.

Section 4: Summary Career development does more than keep employees engaged – it helps DIA accomplish its

mission by ensuring that employees are as technically proficient as possible. Because of its

importance, DIA conducted a comprehensive agency-wide competency refresh in 2012-2013 to

provide updated competencies, behavioral indicators, and strategies for skill building as a

roadmap for employees and supervisors to ensure that career development was an agency

priority. Career path development information changes as missions and objectives shift and

evolve. Therefore, it is important to review and update career path development information to

ensure that the materials provided to ST personnel remain both current and accurate.

Helpful Tip The ST monthly newsletter is

circulated electronically throughout

the directorate and is an easy way

to communicate success stories and

other career development program

ideas.

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Section 5. Appendices Appendix A: Glossary of Frequently Used Terms

Behavioral indicator – An action statement for a competency by work level.

Career lattice – An expression used to describe how to progress both vertically and laterally in a

career.

Competency – An observable, measureable set of skills, knowledge, abilities, behaviors, and

other characteristics required to successfully perform work roles or occupational functions.

Competency framework – The collection of occupational and specialty competencies and

behavioral indicators for a job series.

Core competencies – Competencies that apply universally to all DIA employees inclusive of

each mission category, occupational series, or work category.

Job Series – A subdivision of an occupational group. An occupational group as defined by OPM

is, “A major category of white collar occupations.” For example, the 0132 technical intelligence

job series falls within the 0100 Social Science, Psychology, and Welfare Group occupational

group.

Leadership competencies – Competencies that apply to employees in leadership/ supervisory

positions and describe knowledge, skills, and abilities across the leadership/ supervisory domain.

Mission critical – A competency is mission critical if the mission cannot be achieved in the

absence of this particular competency. In addition, an employee cannot be successful if s/he does

not possess a certain level of proficiency in this competency.

Occupational competencies – Competencies that apply to all positions within an occupational

series.

Physical Science – The 1300 occupational group contains the following job series: 1301 –

Physical Science, 1310 –Physics, 1320 – Chemistry, 1370 – Cartography.

Proficiency level – A description of skill level associated with a competency. Proficiency level

is similar to, but not the same as a work level. There are five proficiency levels: Novice,

Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.

Reliable – The extent to which an assessment is consistent. For example, an assessment is

considered reliable if it is administered multiple times and always gets the same response every

time.

Role – A type of job function. An employee can be in either a management role or a subject

matter expert (SME) role. An employee cannot move between roles within the same position

description. S/he would need to competitively apply for a new position to change roles.

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Specialty – A field within a job series. For example, within the TIO job series, there are four

specialties: Collection, exploitation, foreign materiel, and research, development, testing and

evaluation.

Specialty competencies – The skills, knowledge, and abilities that apply to a specific subset of

positions and provide specialization within a job series or occupational group.

Talent Management – A systematic process for hiring and developing employees.

Technical Intelligence Officer (TIO) – A multi-disciplinary series involving scientific and

technical developments and capabilities, particularly in the areas of emerging and disruptive

technologies.

Valid – How accurate an assessment is and whether the assessment measures what it is supposed

to measure.

Work level – A level of seniority corresponding to a GG level. There are four work levels.

Entry/ Developmental (GG7-12), Full-Performance (GG13), Senior (GG14), and Expert (GG15).

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Appendix B: Timeline of Events for Refreshing ST’s Career Path Development Initiative

Materials

Communication Ideas Career Path Development Refresh Ideas

February 2014

• Provide monthly communication to OHR

explaining new ST developments and asking for

OHR competency-related developments.

• Collect information from ST employees and

supervisors (use some or all questions from

Appendix D) to learn how they are using the

career path development materials and how the

career path development initiative can be

improved.

March 2014

• Publish newsletter article highlighting how some

supervisors are using the Low-Cost Development

Options table to develop employees.




• Analyze data from February’s data collection to

understand what recommendations can be

implemented according to the following

timeframes:

o 0 – 3 months

o 4 – 9 months

o Longer-term initiatives

April 2014

• Publish newsletter article reminding employees to

keep their IDPs updated. Provide examples of how

some employees are using IDPs to advance their

careers.




• Collect competency frameworks and career path

guides from OHR website and ODNI CHCO

• Review competency frameworks and ODNI

updates for best practices. See Section 2.1 (Collect

Background Information).

May 2014

• Publish newsletter article highlighting how some

employees are using the Low-Cost Development

Options table to develop themselves.




• N/A

June 2014

• Publish newsletter article highlighted developments

from OHR’s OA/OCPM/CPM program.




• Implement applicable suggestions from February

2014 survey.

July 2014




• N/A

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August 2014



OHR competency-related developments

• N/A

September 2014

• Communicate with all employees and managers on

holding competency-based performance appraisal

meetings using available career development

materials. Reference the following documents:

o Career Path Guide

o Competency and Behavior-Based Question

Guide




• Implement longer-term suggestions from February

2014 survey.

October 2014

• Publish newsletter article stating that the career

path development initiative will be refreshed.




• Follow steps in Section 2 for revising the career

path development initiative.

November 2014

• Publish newsletter article announcing what focus

groups are being held and any other project

progress.




• See Section 2.2 (Refresh Competencies).

o Work with Office Chiefs to identify POCs.

o Identify how many focus groups need to be held

to refresh specialty competencies.

o Work with POCs to schedule focus groups.

o Run focus groups

• See Section 2.5 (Revise Performance Management

Criteria).

o Set up and run focus group(s) with sample of

supervisors to learn how to continually improve

the performance management requirement

December 2014




• See Section 2.3 (Refresh Behavioral Indicators)

o Work with POCs to review and refresh

behavioral indicators.

o Find second set of subject matter experts to

provide additional insight and review for revised

behavioral indicators.

January 2015

• Publish newsletter article describing the changes

that will be made to the career path development

initiative.

• Provide a town-hall session for ST Federal

• See Section 2.4 (Refresh Training and Development

Options)

o Review lists of recommended and unabridged

courses by competency and work level.

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employees explaining the changes made to the

career path development initiative.

o Work with POCs to determine if these courses

are appropriate.

o Schedule and hold focus groups to learn about

best practices with low-cost developmental

options.

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Appendix C: Original Career Path Development Project Methodology

Appendix C provides background information on the steps the researchers took to research,

collect, validate, and disseminate competencies, behavioral indicators, and training and

development options for the original career path development project. It is necessary to

understand the project’s methodology and what was done to produce these original project data

so that a similar methodology can be followed when revising the ST’s career path development

project and its accompanying documents.

C.1. Benchmarked Best Practices

The first part of the career path development project involved learning about other organizations’

career development projects to discover best practices. By emulating best practices, ST could

save time and resources and focus on adapting proven techniques that would fit with DIA’s

culture and specifications. Researchers collected career path guides and spoke to human

resources experts to learn what types of career development options and opportunities they

provided for their employees and supervisors. The following organizations provided information

and assistance to the researchers:

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – Directorate for Science and Technology

• Defense Intelligence Agency – Various directorates

o Chief Information Office

o Office of Counterintelligence

o Office of Facilities

o Directorate for Operations

• Department for Homeland Security (DHS) – Office of Human Resources

• MITRE – Office of Human Resources

• National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) – Langley Research Center

• National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) – InnoVision Key Component

Researchers reported their findings on each organization’s best practices and submitted the

reports to ST. The information collected from these organizations helped shape ST’s career path

development project.

C.2. Reviewed Competency Frameworks

Part of the best practice research included collecting competency frameworks from these best-in-

class organizations. ST could save time and resources using existing competencies and

competency frameworks because the researchers would not have to create a competency

framework from scratch. The organizations that provided competency frameworks were:

• DIA – Office of Human Resources (OHR)4

• NASA – Langley Research Center

• NGA – InnoVision Key Component

• Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

• Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) – Chief Human Capital Office

(CHCO)5

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The wealth of information collected allowed researchers to assemble a comprehensive library of

relevant competencies for the ST career path development project, specific to the 0132 TIOs. As

a result, new competencies did not need to be created. Once a library of potential specialty

competencies was created, the researchers met with subject matter experts (SMEs) to narrow

down the list of specialty competencies that were applicable to 0132 TIOs. This next phase of

validating mission critical specialty competencies is described below.

C.3. Facilitated Subject Matter Expert Focus Groups to Validate Specialty Competencies

As stated above, a review of all available competency frameworks yielded a master list of

potential specialty competencies for 0132 TIOs. Researchers conducted focus groups with SMEs

in each of the four TIO specialties (Collection, Exploitation, Foreign Materiel, and Research,

Development, Testing and Evaluation) to understand which specialty competencies were mission

critical for their specialty.* SMEs, chosen by their Office Chiefs, granted interviews and

discussed their specialties’ mission critical competencies. Focus groups allowed the researchers

to solicit input from as many TIOs as possible. Individual interviews allowed the researchers to

ask detailed follow-up questions to a SME’s responses. In both the focus groups and the

interviews, the facilitators asked:

1. Which competencies are mission critical for your specialty now?

2. Which competencies do you anticipate being mission critical for your specialty three to five

years from now?

Throughout the focus groups and interviews, SMEs bucketed the competencies into one of three

categories:

• Mission critical specialty competency, either now or three to five years from now

• Mission critical occupational competency, either now or three to five years from now

• Not mission critical

Since one of the goals was to include as many TIOs as possible in the Career Development

Project as possible, researchers went to all of the ST’s locations (not including Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base) including:

• DIA Headquarters – Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling

• Corporate Point

• Patriot Park

• Tycon 6

• Patrick AFB by video teleconferencing

• Rivanna Station

Once all of these focus group and interview data had been collected, the researchers edited the

materials and sent the collected input back to all the focus group participants to make sure that

all of their ideas and data were accurately recorded. A final draft list of mission critical

competencies, broken down by specialty and ST office was vetted with SMEs, Office Chiefs,

*NMO employees were not included in the focus groups because their employees use a collection management

competency framework.

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and the Director and Deputy Director of ST. The Director of ST (DR/ST) approved the 0132 TIO

mission critical competencies in May 2013.

C.4 Facilitated Subject Matter Expert Conversations to Validate Behavioral Indicators

Following approval of the 0132 TIO occupational and specialty competencies by DR/ST,

research was done to find behavioral indicators for all the mission critical competencies. Many

of the competencies already had behavioral indicators written for them. When behavioral

indicators were missing, new behavioral indicators were drafted by the researchers and SMEs.

Because of the complexity of reviewing and writing behavioral indicators, researchers did not

run focus groups. Instead, all behavioral indicators, whether previously created or newly drafted,

were vetted with the existing points of contacts (POCs) and SMEs.

While all phases of developing a competency framework are important, creating and validating

behavioral indicators holds special importance because behavioral indicators are examples of

what a competency looks like in action across work levels. Employees and supervisors will

carefully review behavioral indicators for examples of what successful performance looks like

whether performing career development or performance appraisals tasks. To ensure that the

behavioral indicators were accurate, they were reviewed by a second set of SMEs. Points of

contact from the competency validation stage were the first round of SMEs to review the

behavioral indicators. The Office Chiefs were asked to provide names of other recommended

senior SMEs for a second round of reviews. The Office Chiefs were asked to select senior SMEs

who met the following criteria:

• Considered to be the best and the brightest in their office

• Would be that Office Chief’s first choice to train the next generation of 0132 TIOs

Once selected, this second round of senior SMEs were asked to review and provide feedback on

all behavioral indicators. Once both sets of senior SMEs reviewed the behavioral indicators, they

were submitted for approval, and approved by the Officer Chiefs, Deputy Director, and by

DR/ST in June 2013. Now that specialty competencies and behavioral indicators were written

and approved, the work began of figuring out how 0132 TIOs could use these materials to

advance in their careers.

C.5. Documented Training Courses for All 0132 TIO Occupational and Specialty Competencies

Researchers searched AGILE6 for relevant courses that 0132 TIOs could take to advance their

proficiency in all the occupational and specialty competencies. While AGILE has course listings

from other Intelligence Community (IC) agencies, the researchers called the HR and training

officers for all 16 IC agencies, asking for lists of courses that are also available to DIA civilians.

As a result of this outreach effort, the researchers developed long lists of available courses for

almost every occupational and specialty 0132 TIO competency.

While an unabridged list of courses could be helpful for an employee to see the range of courses

and topics pertaining to any competency, many competencies had lists of courses with over 30

courses. The researchers decided that these unabridged lists would be overwhelming for an

employee. Therefore, SMEs were asked to choose recommended courses from the lists of

unabridged courses for each competency and each work level. The results were abridged lists of

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courses that an employee could take in sequential order as s/he became more proficient in that

competency.

The researchers recognized that formal training was only one venue to use in developing

competencies. As a result, the researchers developed a Low-Cost Developmental Options7

document that lists ideas of on-the-job activities employees can do to develop competencies.

C.6. Educated ST Civilians to Use Career Development Documents

A competency framework and its accompanying materials are only successful if they are used. In

addition to creating career development materials, the researchers implemented a communication

strategy to help make ST personnel aware of these materials. Throughout the development of the

competencies, behavioral indicators, and training course documentations, the researchers

submitted articles to each monthly ST newsletter. The newsletter articles focused on explaining

the career development project, why it was important, and new project developments. Many ST

colleagues already knew about the project from their participation in the focus groups and

interviews. The goal of these articles was to make as many ST personnel aware of the career

development project as possible.

Once the competency framework was developed, the researchers conducted numerous training

sessions for all ST civilians. Although the competency framework was specific to 0132 TIOs, the

other career development materials that were developed were applicable to all ST civilians. ST

civilians who were not 0132 TIOs could use all the career development materials except for the

0132 TIO competency framework. The non-0132 TIOs would need to wait for other directorates

to create competency frameworks for their job series. In addition to in-person training events, an

on-line AGILE course was developed for future reference.

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Appendix D: Sample Career Path Development Refresh Questions

Some or all of these questions can be asked during to understand the success of ST’s career path

development initiative and how it can be continually improved. These questions can be asked

during an in-person conversation, an on-line survey, or in a focus group.

Career Development Documents

1. What career development materials have you used? (Check all that apply)

_ Career Path Guide

_ Competency Framework

_ Mission Critical Competencies by ST Office (Only applicable to 0132 TIOs)

_ Mission Critical Competencies by Job Role (Only applicable to 0132 TIOs and 1300

Physical Scientists)

_ Competency Assessment

_ Community-Sponsored Training Schools document

_ Low-Cost Development Options document

_ Individual Development Plan

_ Selecting the Most Appropriate Training/Development Option document

2. What documents were helpful for career path development? Why?

3. What documents were not helpful for career path development? Why?

4. What can be done to make the documents more helpful for career path development?

5. If you are an employee, have you completed your IDP?

6. If yes, did you share it with your supervisor?

Mission Critical Competencies

7. Are the competency definitions accurate?

8. What competencies should be added/ deleted/ revised?

9. Are the mission critical competencies assigned to offices accurate? Should any be added/

deleted?

10. Are the mission critical competencies assigned to job roles accurate? Should any be added/

deleted?

Mapping Competencies to Objectives

11. If you are an employee, did you map competencies to the objectives your supervisor gave

you?

12. If yes, was the process of mapping competencies to your objectives helpful in learning more

about what competencies you need to successfully complete your objectives?

13. If no, why not?

Behavioral Indicators

14. What behavioral indicators should be added/ deleted/ revised?

Training Courses

15. Are the training courses for each competency and work level accurate?

16. What training courses should be added/ deleted?

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Low-Cost Development Options

17. What low-cost development options have you used?

18. Were there low-cost development options not included in the Low-Cost Developmental

Options table that you used?

Performance Management

19. If you are a supervisor, have you seen the criteria for how you will be rated during your

performance appraisal on “Performance Management?”

20. If you are a supervisor, how are you making a conscious effort to develop your employees?

Career Development

21. Has career development improved in ST in FY14? Why or why not?

Note: Career development does not mean getting more billets. Getting more billets is not within

ST’s control.

Changing One Thing

22. What is the one thing that ST should start doing to improve career development within our

directorate?

23. What is the one thing that ST should stop doing to improve career development within our

directorate?

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Appendix E: Status of Tasks for OA/OCPM/CPM Program for ST Occupational Advocate Key Task Checklist

2,3

HR is asking each OA to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct. TASK DELIVERABLE DUE STATUS 0132 TIO 1300 Physical Sciences

Appoint Occupational Career

Program Manager (OCPM) for

designated series; forward

name(s) to HR

List of Names (via email) 14 June Complete

As DDFor appoint (or re-appoint)

Career Program Manager CPM

for the directorate; forward names

to HR

Email notifications of changes

in CPMs

Ongoing N/A

Review and approve competency

framework(s) for designated

series-based occupational groups

Competency Framework in

OHR-approved format

31 Aug Competency Framework for

tech 0132s completed and

approved by OA August

2013.

Competency Framework for

1300 physical scientists

completed and approved by

OA January 2014.

Review inventory of series-based

population across the DIA

enterprise provided by HR

List of personnel who are

1300s and Tech 0132s

Provided by WFA

Establish routine

meetings/communications with

appointed OCPM(s) and CPM(s)

N/A Ongoing OA briefed 8 April

OCPM briefed 26 April

CPMs notified 6 June

OCPM briefed 29 July by

Michelle and Steve

OCPM briefed 7 August by

OHR

Work collaboratively with HR on

professional development issues

and initiatives

N/A Ongoing All career data and project

updates have been submitted to

OHR since November 2012.

Currently meeting/talking on a

weekly or bi-weekly basis.

POCs: Jerry Jackson, Alicia

Tompkins

Leverage HR Communications

templates to communicate to

respective target audience

N/A Ongoing 6 June CPM email was a

modified version of the

template provided by OHR in

the OA/OCPM/CPM

Handbook

Maintain situational awareness of

designated occupational group’s

capability and professional

readiness in support of Agency-

wide missions (ICW OCPM and

N/A Ongoing 23 August: Coordinating with

Collection Management career

managers to develop training

for NMO.

2 Task lists is from the Defense Intelligence Agency Occupational Advocate, Occupational Career Program Manager, and Career Program Manager Pilot

Handbook dated November 2012. 3 Green indicates that objective has been met. Yellow indicates that objective is in process (as of 5 November 2013).

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Occupational Advocate Key Task Checklist2,3

HR is asking each OA to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct. TASK DELIVERABLE DUE STATUS 0132 TIO 1300 Physical Sciences

HR), develop options to address

gaps

Provide to HR draft career path

guides for designated series-based

occupational group(s)

Career Path Guide for 1300

Series

Career Path Guides for

Technical 0132 Series

April 2014

Career Path Guide for tech

0132s completed in

November 2013.

Career Path Guide for 1300s

scheduled to be completed

31 January 2014.

UNCLASSIFIED

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Occupational Career Program Manager Key Task Checklist4

HR is asking each OCPM to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.

TASK DELIVERABLE DUE STATUS 0132 TIO 1300 Physical Sciences

Designate OCPM support personnel as

required; forward list to HR

List of Names (via email) 7 Aug Completed on 7 June

Review competency framework(s) for

designated series-based occupational

groups and send to OA for approval

Competency Framework in

OHR-approved format

31 Aug Competencies completed and

approved by OA.

Converting data into OHR

approved format (in progress)


tech 0132s converted into

OHR format August 2013.


1300 physical scientists

converted into OHR format

January 2014.

Regularly check-in with OA to discuss

career development matters (recommend

bi-monthly)

N/A Ongoing Ongoing

Review inventory of series-based

population across the DIA enterprise

provided by HR

List of personnel who are

1300s and Tech 0132s

WFA provided 1300s

ST provided a list of Tech

0132s to OHR on 30 May

Become part of HR-led Community of

Practice for this construct

N/A Ongoing No COP meetings have been

held as of yet

Perform outreach activities with CPMs

both within and outside Directorate

(e.g., emails, briefs) to communicate

series-based occupational group

information

Emails, Briefs, etc. Ongoing ST communication with the

workforce has been

consistent and is ongoing

Leverage HR Communications

templates to communicate to respective

target audience

N/A Ongoing 6 June CPM email was a

modified version of the

template provided by OHR in

the OA/OCPM/CPM

Handbook

Post newsletter articles on using Competency-related

materials

Maintain situational awareness of

designated occupational group’s

capability and professional readiness in

support of Agency-wide missions - ICW

OA and HR, develop options to address

gaps

N/A Ongoing Ongoing

Provide to HR draft career path guides

for designated series-based occupational

group(s)

Career Path Guide for 1300

Series

Career Path Guides for

Technical 0132 Series

September 2013 Career Path Guide for 1300s

(not started)

Career Path Guide for tech

0132s completed in

November 2013.

Career Path Guide for

1300s scheduled to be

completed 31 January 2014.

Assess the workload by addressing if

this role is a full time or a collateral

duty. If collateral, please further

Email to OHR September 2013 Not started


Handbook dated November 2012.

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Occupational Career Program Manager Key Task Checklist4

HR is asking each OCPM to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct.

TASK DELIVERABLE DUE STATUS 0132 TIO 1300 Physical Sciences

identify the percentage that the OCPM

duty encompasses (e.g. 25%) for this

occupational series.

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Career Program Manager Key Task Checklist5

HR is asking each CPM to accomplish the following tasks and provisions upon designation to support implementation of the OCPM/CPM construct. TASK DELIVERABLE DUE STATUS 0132 TIO 1300 Physical Sciences

In coordination with the Dir/ST, develop

communication plan for the OA, OCPM

and CPM Construct to the organization’s

workforce (e.g., Info Release)

Communication Plan 7 Aug In progress

Establish regular

meetings/communications with Dir/ST on

the organization’s professional

development program

N/A Ongoing Dir/ST briefed 8 April

Regularly check-in with OCPMs

representing your Directorate’s series-

based occupational groups (recommend

bi-monthly)

N/A Ongoing Ongoing

Serve as the SME for employees in need

of career-specific information and/or

guidance

N/A Ongoing Ongoing

Become part of HR-led Community of

Practice for this construct

N/A Ongoing COP scheduled for 27

August

Attend one-day CPM training/kick off

session sponsored by HR

Attend Kick-Off 19 June OCPM and CPMs notified 6

June

Develop and/or revise Directorate

specific professional development

resources (e.g., interview guides, resume

writing, job seekers guide, career

blueprint)

Finished Resource

Documents (in ST these will

be posted our career portal

when complete)

September 2013 Interview Guide and similar

resources in progress.

Estimated completion

November 2013

Competency and Behavior-

based Question Guide to be

completed in January 2014.

Maintain awareness and provide input as

requested to OCPM-developed draft

career path guides and roadmaps for

designated series

N/A Ongoing Ongoing

Perform outreach activities within

Directorate on career development (e.g.,

workshops, resume writing sessions,

career assessments)

Brown Bag Sessions,

Workshops, Seminars,

Training

Ongoing Training on Career Path

Guide for Technical 0132s

scheduled for August-

September 2013. Other

events will be ad hoc but

ongoing.

Assess the workload by addressing if this

role is a full time or a collateral duty. If

collateral, please further identify the

percentage that the CPM duty

encompasses (e.g. 25%) for this

occupational series.

Email to OHR September 2013 Not started


Handbook dated November 2012.

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Appendix F: References

1 Director Flynn’s priorities:

http://dodiisportal.dodiis.ic.gov/sites/InterCOMM/DirectorsCorner/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=4 2 ODNI Chief Human Capital Office: http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/chco/default.aspx

3 ST Career Development intranet:

http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/dt/DTMS/Career%20Development/Forms/AllItems.aspx 4 OHR Competency intranet:

https://portal.dodiis.ic.gov/sites/ohr/ohr4/careerplanning/competencies/Pages/default.aspx 5 ODNI Chief Human Capital Office: http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/chco/default.aspx

6 AGILE website: https://agile.dodiis.ic.gov/

7 ST Career Development intranet:

http://intelshare.intelink.ic.gov/sites/dt/DTMS/Career%20Development/Forms/AllItems.aspx