Key Assignment Draft

You are an action officer in one of the operating agencies or directorates of the Department Homeland Security. You have been assigned to work in the budget development process of the agency or directorate. The senior budget officer has recently been assigned to this office and desires an information paper on the current Strategic Plan (StratPlan) of the agency or directorate to begin preparing for the next Strategic Plan and budget cycle. The budget director has reviewed your information paper (Individual Project 3). The budget director now desires an analysis and decision support paper. The specific intent is to determine if agency or directorate priorities are aligned with department priorities, and if not, what are the realignment requirements to correctly align agency or directorate priorities to the department priorities. Using the work completed in the Unit 3 Individual Project and your instructor’s feedback, conduct an analysis in support of the budget director’s objectives.

Conduct an analysis of the current Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Homeland Security Quadrennial Review (HSQR), Bottom Up Review (BUR), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Fiscal Years (FY) 2014–2018 Strategic Plan (StratPlan), and the DHS FY2015 Budget in Brief (BIB). Prepare a decision support paper. The paper provides a summary of the DHS Strategic Plan and Budget priorities, identifies any agency or directorate priority misalignments, and provides recommendations for agency or directorate program priority alignment within the DHS StratPlan. Justification of all recommendations is required within the report.

Your report is a decision support paper and should be formatted as a formal report. The report should address the following items:

• Purpose statement
• Background discussion
• Analysis methodology discussion
• Summary and findings of review for each specified document:
  • Homeland Security Quadrennial Review (HSQR)
  • Bottom-Up Review (BUR)
  • the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Fiscal Years (FY) 2014–2018 Strategic Plan (StratPlan), and the DHS FY2015 Budget in Brief (BIB)
• Summary of key findings
• Provide any recommendations that you may have
• Reference all source material and citations using APA 6th edition
• Use of the CTU Online Graduate Writing template is required

Instructions:

Model Answer

The student should be providing professional-level information and decision support documents. Writing style, writing mechanics, format, and content are key elements for grading and preparing the student for entry into the homeland security profession. Grading feedback to the student that addresses each of these areas is critical for student success and professional preparation and education. The student should use the provided report template.

The students provide a document that includes the following: title page, executive summary (or abstract with keyword index), table of contents, purpose statement, background statement (from scenario), topic paragraphs that address each task requirement to include the student’s analysis, summative paragraph that addresses key findings and any recommendations, references, and abbreviations and acronyms definitions.