The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is supporting the U.S. Department of War to develop a more data-literate financial management workforce through its Data Analytics for Defense Management Certificate, a distance-learning program sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of War-Comptroller.
The certificate was developed by NPS in response to a sponsor requirement for an educational program supporting data-driven, fiscally informed decision-making. The curriculum combines analytical methods and technical skills with the real-world problems defense financial managers encounter across their organizations.
“The true power of this initiative lies in its impact on our people,” said Scott Bauer, executive director for business operations in the Office of the Under Secretary of War-Comptroller. “When we empower our financial workforce with the tools to master data, we multiply their ability to drive efficiencies, optimize resources, and deliver value to the mission.”
As part of the certificate program, 33 financial management professionals from across the military services participated in an inaugural Data Analytics Bootcamp at NPS, June 22-25. The three-day on campus experience brought distance-learning students together with faculty and classmates to establish a common technical foundation before beginning more advanced coursework.
“Data literacy is becoming an essential leadership competency across the defense enterprise,” said Dr. Simona Tick, chair of the NPS Department of Acquisition, Finance, and Manpower. “The objective is more than teaching our students how to use analytical tools. We want to develop defense management professionals who can ask the right questions of data, understand what it is telling them, and translate that understanding into better decisions about resources, readiness and mission outcomes.”
Students attending the Data Analytics Bootcamp and NPS Department of Acquisition, Finance, and Manpower professor Laura Armey work side-by-side during the intensive three-day bootcamp. The in-person experience served as an ideal launchpad for both the technical coding curriculum and the social cohesion of participating students. (Courtesy photo)
During the bootcamp, students worked directly with NPS faculty using R and RStudio for statistical analysis, as well as Databricks and Advana for FM within the DOW’s enterprise data and analytics environment. Advana for FM provides access to data drawn from more than 400 defense business systems, giving financial management professionals opportunities to apply analytics to real-world organizational challenges.
For students accustomed to engaging with faculty and classmates primarily online, the bootcamp also provided an opportunity to build the professional relationships that will support them throughout the certificate program.
“Having the opportunity to become familiar with R, RStudio, Advana for FM, and Databricks before using them in future courses was very helpful,” said a participating student. “It was very beneficial meeting the professors and getting to know them face-to-face, which you do not typically get to do with a distance-learning program.”
As students progress through the certificate, they will expand their ability to analyze multidimensional data, make inferences and predictions, explore causal relationships, and convert data into information leaders can use.
The program demonstrates an important feature of the NPS defense-focused education model: bringing working professionals together with faculty to develop knowledge and technical skills connected to sponsor and workforce requirements. Students can then carry those capabilities back to their organizations, where the department can assess how the learning is applied to financial management responsibilities and decisions.
For the Office of the Under Secretary of War-Comptroller, the intended outcome is a workforce increasingly capable of using the department’s growing data resources not simply to report what has happened, but to better understand why it happened, anticipate what may happen next, and support more informed decisions about defense resources.
“This mission is particularly important as defense organizations increasingly rely on data to understand costs, assess performance, allocate resources, and connect financial decisions to operational outcomes,” said June Lauffenberger, division chief for financial workforce readiness in the Office of the Under Secretary of War-Comptroller. “NPS provides the academic depth with the defense focus we need.”