JITC Employee Named Civilian Tester of the Year
The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) named a Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) employee as its Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) civilian tester of the year.
Michele Sitler received the award for her work as the operational test director for the Key Management Infrastructure (KMI) System, which provides secure ordering, generation, production, distribution, management, and auditing of cryptographic products to the communications security community.
Each year, NDIA recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the defense test and evaluation (T&E) community with Tester of the Year awards in three categories: military, civilian, and contractor. Awards are presented to each of the military services; OSD nominates individuals on behalf of the defense agencies.
“Dedicated, focused, energetic, and loaded with analytical skills, Ms. Sitler is the recognized expert in operational testing and critical evaluation of the DoD’s KMI capabilities,” said Army COL Timothy Buennemeyer, senior military advisor for Net-Centric, Space, and Missile Defense Systems at the OSD Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, in Sitler’s nomination citation.
KMI is a DoD initiative in support of cryptographic modernization objectives and the Global Information Grid Information Assurance Strategy. Stakeholders include the armed services, federal and local agencies, and government contractors.
Sitler led the development of scenarios that tested critical KMI capabilities.
She also pioneered the use of design of experiments (DOE) at JITC by using a simulator to assess the impacts of latency, load, and speed variables on the system. DOE is an experimental methodology that reduces costs by speeding up the experiment design process, reducing late engineering design changes, and reducing product material and labor complexity.
Sitler took a prominent role in verifying and operationalizing the developmental testing, and was able to collaborate with the Army Test and Evaluation Command to use existing processes and databases to conserve resources.
Sitler has dedicated more than 10 years to the T&E community at JITC, and has been in her role as KMI operational test director since 2010.
“[This award] means I am part of a great team,” said Stitler. “I may be the operational test director, but by no means is this award an individual effort. Our team is very proactive, consistently thinks outside the box, and always cares about the quality of service we provide.”
JITC is a Defense Information Systems Agency command that tests, operationally evaluates, and certifies IT capabilities for joint interoperability.
NDIA is a defense industry association focused on facilitating growth, innovation, and technological advances for all facets of the defense industrial and related support base.
Posted April 3, 2013