The Challenge: Automate and streamline T&R operations
To manage the T&R of their aviation units, the United States Marine Corps relies on the Marine Corps Sierra-Hotel Aviation Readiness Program (M-SHARP) system. This system is the authoritative data source for documenting all Marine Corps aviation flight records (NAVFLIRs), aircrew T&R data, and readiness reporting.
Recently, the Marine Corps turned to ECS to expand M-SHARP’s capabilities to streamline the development of T&R program manuals and reduce errors associated with change, review, and approval processes.
The Approach: A scaled agile framework (SAFe) for rapid development
The ECS team worked closely with Marine Corps subject matter experts and M-SHARP end users to develop a rules-based system to check a unit’s training progress and validate whether a mission adheres to published T&R guidelines. During the development process, ECS employed SAFe to rapidly iterate and release updates every one to two weeks. The system also established automated sharing capabilities by creating an authoritative data source for T&R data.
23
Percentage M-SHARP users reached
by ECS field service representatives
52
Number of agile
releases in 2021
2967
Support tickets addressed
by ECS help desk in 2021
The Result: An automated “T&R Builder” for efficient validation and review
The new T&R Builder integrated T&R manuals into M-SHARP and enabled the system to validate whether user inputs adhere to Aviation Program Manual (APM) rules. If the aircrew don’t have the correct training for the syllabus event, or a user’s input violates T&R guidelines, M-SHARP flags the error, preventing risks to mission and aircrew safety. The new builder also streamlined the change, review, and approval process of T&R, enabling Marine Corps model managers to build complete T&R manuals in concert with community conferences. Changes are published directly to the database for immediate utilization, and commanders can access completed documentation in minutes as opposed to months.
Marine Corps T&R Builder
- Reduced user errors when drafting and editing T&R manuals
- Eliminated inconsistencies between management systems and manuals
- Expedited the change, review, and approval process for T&R
- Enabled commanders to easily standardize and customize T&R guidelines
By establishing efficient and error-free transmission of real-time data, the team eliminated excess labor and cut down the amount of entry requirements, helping to create an efficient, effective system for reporting. In addition to the T&R builder, the Marine Corps, working with ECS developers and cloud experts, migrated M-SHARP to an approved AWS GovCloud environment. The changes enabled reliable and secure access while increasing system scalability and lowering infrastructure costs.