The DoD has had long-standing, serious problems with its numerous military component-unique personnel and pay systems. To address these problems, in 1998, DoD initiated a program to design and implement the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, which will provide a joint, integrated, standardized personnel and pay system for all acting and reserve military components. However, some Army Reserve and National Guard troops continued to receive inaccurate pay. Furthermore, problems have been exacerbated by military personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, whose families depend on receiving accurate and timely pay. This review focuses on DoD¿s plans to deliver the system to the Army for deployment. Charts and tables.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel & Readiness), referred to throughout this report as P&R, is responsible for the total force management of all Department of Defense (DoD) components including the recruitment, readiness, and retention of personnel. Its work and policies are supported by a number of organizations both within DoD, including the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), and externally, including the federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) that work for DoD. P&R must be able to answer questions for the Secretary of Defense such as how to recruit people with an aptitude for and interest in various specialties and along particular career tracks and how to assess on an ongoing basis service members' career satisfaction and their ability to meet new challenges. P&R must also address larger-scale questions, such as how the current realignment of forces to the Asia-Pacific area and other regions will affect recruitment, readiness, and retention. While DoD makes use of large-scale data and mathematical analysis in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and elsewhereâ€"exploiting techniques such as complex network analysis, machine learning, streaming social media analysis, and anomaly detectionâ€"these skills and capabilities have not been applied as well to the personnel and readiness enterprise. Strengthening Data Science Methods for Department of Defense Personnel and Readiness Missions offers and roadmap and implementation plan for the integration of data analysis in support of decisions within the purview of P&R.

This report examines recent patterns in military-to-civilian conversion--that is, converting military positions to government civilian positions--to identify the primary impediments to such conversions. The authors reviewed relevant statutes and policies, held discussions with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) subject matter experts, and analyzed administrative data on DoD military and civilian personnel.