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Evolution of the User

To understand the need for, and range of, User and Joint User (JU) responsibilities, it is important to understand the role of the User function at its foundation and the key influences that drive the need for change.

In 1998 the Acquisition Organisation Review (AOR) set out to improve the procurement and in-service management of the equipment programme through the identification of clear customer / supplier relationships within the MOD.

The McKinsey report on the UK’s defence procurement system identified the need for two distinct but interlinked ‘customers’ to exchange information with the Project Teams (as suppliers) throughout the lives of the various equipment programmes.

The 2 customers were described as:

Customer 1 (Sponsor)
Second Customer (User),

The study identified the broad roles and responsibilities of the Users, setting out the high level procedures to be followed by User organisations.

A Joint Capabilities Board (JCB) workshop highlighted a further complexity; despite the fact that concept work was a key part of the Sponsor role there was virtually no guidance available on what it was and how it should be done. This prompted the Joint Doctrine Concepts Centre (JDCC) Provenance Paper.

From this paper a framework was developed to establish the provenance, authority and coherence of joint and single Service concepts along with a process to explain ideas to capability. This paper also noted the following:

"The increasing number of joint capabilities, our joint acquisition process, and concepts that lie across Service and Capability Sponsor boundaries (such as intelligence and logistics) lead to a particular problem. Increasingly, there are occasions where it is not appropriate for a single Service to assume User responsibilities.
While the Command and Battlespace Management (CBM) initiative provides a focus for certain joint User Core Leadership issues, there is no overall mechanism for selecting a joint User across the range of Defence capabilities. Neither is there a mechanism for agreeing a lead agent for the Pivotal Management of any system that has significant joint implications."

The JJDCC paper was taken forward and updated as part of the MTWS1a work and the introduction of the 6 Step Process.

At the same time in September 2003, the Policy and Commitments directorates underwent a reorganisation and the Joint Second Customer was established.

In 2006, the McKane Report and the following Defence Acquisition Change Programme identified the requirement to simplify the overall MOD customer arrangements.

This led to the replacement of the Second Customer Core Leader and Pivotal Management with a single User role delivered for the single Service Chief of Staffs or Vice Chief of Defence Staff for Joint matters.

This change involved revising the processes, behaviours (and organisation) in order to generate improved through life coherence. A key element of the change was the transfer of the programming responsibilities for activity based equipment support costs to the Front Line Commands.

Contacts

User

Owner

Post
Director Joint Capability

Point of Contact

Post	Email	Phone
Directorate of Joint Capability	DJtCap-INTEG1@mod.uk	Mil: 9621 82707 Civ: +44 (0) 207 218 2707

Change History

The AOF has been updated to Version 2.0.0 on 1st April 2008 following the introduction of the main content in the tactical layer. In addition small changes have been added to the Operational layer. Individual document Change History pages will detail any changes other than minor editorial amendments.

1 November 2009: Minor amendments made for Plain English review.
1 October 2007: New content – User – brief history of User.