An examination of the skills, experience, training, and education requirements needed as a Functional Area 97 officer in the Army Acquisition Corps

The passage of the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) and the creation of the Army Acquisition corps have both necessitated a shift in the way the Army acquires and trains its Contracting and Industrial Management (FA 97) officers. This thesis examines the environment of the process of defense acquisition beginning in the early 1980's and traces the history of the legislative procurement reform that lead to the passage of DAWIA and the creation of a separate corps of acquisition professionals in the United States Army. The characterization of the present atmosphere of defense acquisition is an austere one and because of this, FA 97 officers must be trained and educated in the most cost effective and productive manner available. Most importantly, the skills they learn must be those that are the most critical to their future performance in the FA 97 arena. Therefore, interviews were conducted with FA 97 officers in the field to determine which skills, classified into technical and management categories, were the most critical to FA 97 job performance.http://archive.org/details/examinationofski00lumbCaptain, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited