The authors assess the Defense Contract Management Agency's (DCMA's) Integrated Resource Workload Model, which estimates the annual DCMA workload and the number of personnel necessary to carry out that workload. They focus on the model's ability to shed light on whether DCMA is (1) accepting the highest-priority mission work, given current funding and staffing levels, and (2) doing work efficiently and to the appropriate standard of performance.

The Defense Contract Management Agency's Resource Workload Model Ecosystem

A Basis for Enhanced Warfighter Support

Susan M. Gates, Tom Wingfield, Heidi Peters, Brandon Crosby, Barbara Bicksler, Karishma R. Mehta, Jack Lashendock, Elliott Brennan

ResearchPublished Mar 5, 2026

The core mission of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) is to provide oversight, administration, and support for the defense contracts that deliver the supplies and services that are critical to U.S. Department of War (DOW) warfighting capabilities and business operations. In 2014, DCMA launched a resource workload modeling effort with the potential to provide better data to help size and shape its workforce to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness.

The authors of this report evaluate DCMA's Integrated Resource Workload Model (IRWM), its Resource Workload Model (RWM) components, and the ecosystem in which the IRWM operates. They focus on the IRWM's ability to shed light on two key questions of interest to DCMA and DOW leaders: (1) whether DCMA is accepting the highest-priority mission work, given current funding and staffing levels, and (2) whether DCMA is doing work efficiently and to the appropriate standard of performance.

Key Findings

The IRWM is grounded in best practices for manpower analysis

  • The model ecosystem supports DCMA decisionmaking and operational improvement, and DCMA iteratively improves RWMs and the IRWM over time to address shortfalls.
  • At the same time, stakeholders pointed to procedural shortfalls in how the model is developed, improved, and used and mentioned that model estimates diverge from reality on the ground.

The IRWM and its component RWMs have short-term and longer-term benefits

  • The IRWM generates a solid point-in-time estimate of the number of DCMA personnel required to support a given contract management workload for the enterprise as a whole and for key workforce segments.
  • The modeling effort also surfaces insights and prompts conversations, choices, and decisions that drive changes to workload distribution, DCMA policy and standard operating procedures, and organizational structures that have the potential to enhance efficiency and process improvement.

DCMA lacks a clear structure for prioritizing model improvement efforts

  • The model does not aim to achieve universal predictive accuracy with its estimates, but there may be circumstances in which enhanced accuracy is desired.
  • Existing staffing levels are insufficient to maintain routine model validation and maintenance while incorporating adjustments to keep pace with significant changes in DCMA's external and internal operating conditions.

Enhanced communication could improve transparency, trust, and accuracy

  • Better communication about model inputs and how they are used could help standardize the use of systems of record at the field level, improving accuracy.

Recommendations

  • DCMA should formally document the processes used to develop the structure and function of the existing IRWM and component RWMs. This effort will bring further discipline and rigor to the modeling process, permit more-precise evaluation of model capabilities, and focus improvements where needed.
  • DCMA should develop standard operating procedures for future model assessment and development. These operating procedures should cover the entire IRWM and all the functional models on which it depends for inputs and validation. DCMA should develop, as part of this effort, an explicit plan to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of its data-capture systems, from automatic data-feeds to human-entered data, with an eye toward ensuring completeness and timeliness while reducing the time and complexity of data entry.
  • DCMA should develop an actionable framework to prioritize and sequence model refinements and upgrades. A deliberate cost-benefit analysis should be done comprehensively once and repeated at relevant intervals.
  • DCMA should improve internal communication about the IRWM ecosystem. Improved communication about the objectives and limitations of the IRWM and user-friendly resources will enhance the effectiveness of model use.
  • DCMA should capitalize on the investment it has made in the IRWM by leveraging it more widely to support agency decisionmaking.

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Gates, Susan M., Tom Wingfield, Heidi Peters, Brandon Crosby, Barbara Bicksler, Karishma R. Mehta, Jack Lashendock, and Elliott Brennan, The Defense Contract Management Agency's Resource Workload Model Ecosystem: A Basis for Enhanced Warfighter Support. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3524-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and conducted within the Personnel, Readiness, and Health Program of the RAND National Security Research Division (NSRD).

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