May 2011 Page 2

Text Box: “Transition, Transition, Transition!” has become the ‘battle cry’ of the Wide Area Recovery and Resiliency Program (WARRP) PM, Chris Russell. Since the Denver kickoff meeting in February, nearly every meeting and event we attend has this resounding chant. It now echoes “resiliently” in my brain as I try to stamp the mantra on the various technologies, tools, and persons I encounter as the WARRP Transition Manager. I want to carry forward Chris’s enthusiasm for transition, as not only good for the program and the science and technology community in general, but as a critical requirement for the future success of government science and technology efforts and programs. In WARRP, we are required to have a known transition partner and a plan for the “sustainment of the technologies” from the outset to insure that DHS S&T dollars spent on WARRP tools and technologies are spent on capabilities that will enhance the operational community (from emergency responders, to on-scene coordinators, to warfighters) agnostic of the many boundaries we encounter. While that is our call and the ringing in my ears, the WARRP Transition process is yet to be fully realized. At this point, the three main categories for WARRP products appear to be: 1) Technologies & Tools, 2) Frameworks, and 3) Research Reports. The transition team is currently developing examples of the transition process for each of these components from “cradle-to-grave”. We have many examples from the DOD in terms of technology/data transition agreements and transition handbooks. We have and will continue to rely on existing resources for significant reuse, but there will likely be necessary tailoring done to optimize our transition process for WARRP. After the initial understanding of the various categories, transition guidance will be

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Text Box: Wide Area Recovery & Resiliency Program (WARRP) Product Transition

Text Box: “S&T dollars spent on WARRP tools and technologies are spent on capabilities that will enhance the operational community” -Doug Hardy, Transition Manager

WARRP BROOM Technology Transition Agreement

distributed and example transition templates will be available to increase consistency and quality of our efforts across the program.

Currently, we are in the midst of a WARRP transition for the BROOM (Building Restoration Operations Optimization Model) tool. The transition is from DHS S&T, with Sandia National Labs as the S&T technology developer of BROOM, to EPA as the sustainment agency. A WARRP BROOM Technology Transition Agreement (TTA) has been developed. After several review iterations, a signatory review meeting was held and nearly all issues have been resolved. A signing event for the TTA is anticipated by the end of April. This will aid in WARRP program reporting aspects, but more importantly will put the content the guts of the TTA in motion to finish identified capability gaps outlined in the TTA, and will finish with a user test taking advantage of the Bio-Response Operational Test and Evaluation (BOTE) exercise in September. We anticipate minor corrections to be made and a final acceptance event to be held before the end of the calendar year, which will include the signing of an acceptance letter signifying a completed WARRP transition!!

This is the intended general life span of a WARRP transition: identify product... develop transition agreement... sign transition agreement fix identified gaps verify fixes… sign acceptance letter for transition.

Right now, transitioning efforts are occurring throughout the program. This is great, and the only way we have a chance to get to all of the transitions that need to be done in the timeframe before us. However, if you are developing a technology, toolset, framework, handbook, and/or report, PLEASE make