“There are no small missions,” Louis Koplin, Chief Information and Technology Officer for PAE Mission Systems at the Department of the Navy, told GovExec’s Courtney O’Neal Allen. “Everyone at the Department of War has a mission; it might be recruiting, it might be classified missions, managing logistics, or paying bills. But all missions are connected and mutually dependent.”
Modernization framed as mission readiness, not tech for tech’s sake
Koplin and Tara Duckworth, Senior IT Principal Solutions Architect at Maximus, argued on a GovExec podcast that modernization must strengthen readiness and sustain performance without disrupting current operations. The goal, they said, is to deliver new capabilities while preserving already deployed systems and the services those systems support.
Duckworth summarized the service-provider view plainly: their job is “to deliver continuous value to the mission, including outcomes that help Sailors, Marines, federal agencies, personnel, and citizens access services when they need them.” Koplin framed operational readiness as fundamentally “about the mission,” not technology for its own sake.
Start at the front lines: user needs and a library of standards
Both guests emphasized reverse-engineering modernization from the point of consumption. Duckworth warned that “good user experience isn’t the same on the frontlines as it is in the back office,” and urged limiting customization and tight coupling of technology to particular experiences. By doing so, she said, the Navy can create “a library of standard services and solutions” that users can adapt across systems ranging “from ERPs and business systems to radar and missile systems.”
The approach prioritizes repeatable, standardized building blocks rather than bespoke solutions that are costly to sustain and risky to change.
Your town's IT department is one person. Maybe.
Ransomware crews target small municipalities because nobody's watching. Nubivance gives Maine and New Hampshire towns a security program sized to a town budget.
Protect the town officeData readiness, AI, and secure flows: practical constraints
Koplin and Duckworth connected AI progress explicitly to data readiness. “AI readiness starts with data readiness,” Duckworth said, adding that “agencies do not need all data in one place to create value.” The critical tasks are breaking down silos, securing data flows, and making information available when the mission requires it.
To accomplish that while preserving resilience, the speakers pointed to architectural patterns: Zero Trust combined with API-led architectures can let data “live where it needs to live” while still enabling secure access, communication, and mission value.
Prioritization, metrics, and reducing emotion from decisions
On prioritization, Duckworth urged identification of critical workflows and processes and retiring technologies that no longer deliver value. Koplin reinforced the point: “if everything is important, nothing is important.” He recommended using data to prioritize, fund highest-value needs first, and reduce emotion from investment choices.
Measuring progress, Koplin highlighted the Department of the Navy’s World-Class Alignment Metrics (WAMs) as a framework to tie technology choices to mission outcomes. The WAMs focus on time lost, operational resilience, customer satisfaction, cost per user, and adaptability. Maximus, Duckworth said, overlays its experience to help customers identify outcomes that align with those WAMs.
What this means for technologists, procurement leaders, and Sailors and Marines
- Technologists and security teams: prioritize data readiness and adopt Zero Trust and API-led patterns so data can be secured and shared without centralized consolidation.
- Procurement and program leaders: use WAMs-style metrics to fund high-value work first, identify outdated technologies to retire, and measure time lost, resilience, customer satisfaction, cost per user, and adaptability.
- Sailors, Marines, and end users: expect modernization efforts to focus on delivering reliable access to mission-critical information “when the mission needs it,” and to favor incremental, low-disruption improvements over wholesale replacements.
The thread through the conversation is practical: modernization succeeds by earning progress through small wins. By starting with critical workflows, improving data readiness, standardizing what should scale, and measuring against mission-focused metrics, Koplin and Duckworth argue the Navy can move faster without putting operations at risk. “First do no harm,” Duckworth reminded listeners — a simple principle with operational consequences.
