The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is making significant progress in moving to a J-code staff organization in order to better align with the Joint Staff and combatant commands, as well as to help it keep up with the strategic threat that is China.
The J-code reorganization allows DISA’s workforce to be more agile and flexible, DISA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner explained today at the AFCEA NOVA Army IT Day event.
“We started this in October, and so, we’re almost in the middle of January and we have a couple more organizations that are working on the second level of detail but all the others are full-force and running,” Skinner said of the J-code effort.
“One of the biggest things we’ve learned is an understanding of what a combat support agency does and an understanding of what J-codes do and don’t do,” Skinner added. “A lot of people thought it was a very magical thing and didn’t understand, when in reality, all you’re doing is … aligning your functions.”
Skinner said that DISA has now set up a J-1 solely focused on human resources, as well as a J-2 “intelligence function” that is specific to DISA.
DISA oversees the majority of the Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN), Skinner said, so it only made sense to set up the J-2 to provide DISA with an understanding of “what the adversary is trying to do against the terrain that DISA owns.”
DISA has also set up a J-3/5/7, which is focused on operations, plans, and exercises. It also has a J-6 that includes DISA’s old Joint Service Provider (JSP) team.
“We have deputies within those, and a lot of this is making sure we’ve got the right leadership in the right place,” Skinner said. “At some point in time in the future, if we want to break those out, we will.”
