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We live in a world of data. There’s even data about data, called metadata. And all this data needs to be stored in databases. Some database systems are basic tabular files, such as Excel. On the other end of the spectrum are ultra-high performance database systems used by massive social media platforms. Twitter sends half a billion tweets per day which equates to 6,000 tweets per second. That’s a lot of data that needs to be stored as efficiently as possible. Databases are typically broken down into tables. One table might store customer data while another table stores a customer’s orders. The connection between customer data and their orders is formally known as a relationship. To minimize needlessly redundant data a category of databases was created, called relational database management systems (RDBMS). A RDBMS is a digital data collection for managing tabular data using a structure and language. A RDBMS structure is known as a schema and the language used to interact with a RDBMS is typically the Structured Query Language (SQL). When developing a RDBMS, it is critical that the database’s schema properly models how database tables relate to each other. This is known as database normalization which removes redundancies. Database tables track unique rows of data using a primary key. A primary key is the equivalent of the integer row numbers in an Excel spreadsheet. A RDBMS should start off with normalized data, which means only keys are duplicated in separate tables – the rest of the business data should be unique to each table. Later, when there's a performance issue, the database can be optimized, as needed, by denormalizing the data. Here are some basic properties of a RDBMS when developing a database schema. 1. Primary keys: Never build intelligence into a primary key – a primary key is simply an artifact of the database and it should represent nothing more than a way to access a row in a database table (i.e., don't use SSN as a primary key). Creating a primary key that's a simple integer is highly efficient since a computer can quickly find and compare numbers (in the case of integers) much faster than a string of nine characters (in the case of SSNs) or 16 characters (in the case of a universally unique identifier, better known as a UUID). 2. Table Names: Database table names should be singular (Employee, Order, Transaction, Statistic, etc). They should be named for what each row in the table represents, not the entire collection. The reason is that, typically, there's a one-to-one mapping between a row in a database table and an object used in code. For example, in code, an instance variable referencing an Employee object should represent a single employee from the database while an instance variable that's plural, such as Employees, should represent a collection of objects such as an array or dictionary. 3. Lookup Tables: A lookup table is a simple static database table that's used to populate a list or collection. For example, a list of countries that a company ships to. Perhaps, the company only ships to the U.S. and Canada. Later, when the company starts shipping to more countries, how does one update the pull-down menu of countries on the website or mobile app? With a lookup table, one simply adds another row to the table with the new country. Updating the database table is easier than changing the code, recompiling, and deploying. Additionally, a look up table also has a column representing a sort order. This is done so the list can be displayed in a specific order with, say, the U.S. listed first, instead of Afghanistan, if most of the customers are located in America. 4. Compound Primary Keys: A database table should have a single primary key for a typical one-to-many relationship to another table. Sometimes, it's necessary to have a many-to-many relationship. For example, a Person table related to an Address table. A person might have multiple addresses (homes), and an address might belong to multiple people. In these cases, where a many-to-many relationship is needed, then a simple middle table is set up with only two columns which contain two primary keys propagated from the two joining tables. One of the primary keys in the middle table is the primary key of the Person and the other is the primary key of the Address. Technically speaking, the two primary keys in the middle table are propagated foreign keys. I am not aware of a practical case where more than two primary keys are needed in a database table. In cases where I have seen three (or more) primary keys in a database table, I realized that the database designer didn't have a good understanding of relational databases. What that designer typically needed was a single primary key, and indices created for their other columns, to optimize their lookup speeds. 5. Number vs Varchar: Do not use a numeric type for defining data fields which won't be used for calculations. In other words, credit card numbers, phone numbers, SSNs, etc., should be string types (i.e. varchars) in a database’s schema. One specific problem I have encountered on a production system is when a developer stored the credit card security code (CSC) as a numeric data type. Although this credit card code is always numeric, it can contain an important leading zero. When I saw my CSC repeatedly failing at checkout on an e-commerce website, I immediately knew the problem and confirmed it by reaching out to the database administrator (DBA). Understanding these fundamental best practices will serve a programmer well in their efforts to create effective, efficient, and understandable code that works - whether for the data management of the mom-and-pop store down the street or the enormity of data in Twitter’s latest trending tweets. You can watch the full instructional video on the CANA Youtube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnkJ7a1QI_E #RDBMS #relationaldatabasebestpractices #data #joemoreno #csc #CANA Joe Moreno Joe Moreno is a Director of Development at CANA Advisors. You can follow him at joemoreno.com or contact via email jmoreno@canallc.com.

Have you ever had that “Oh git” moment, you know, that time in a project where the deliverable is due to a client and something unexpected occurs to the output after a data refresh over the weekend? It is usually followed by a sigh of relief because git is being used to manage the project and saves the day with its version control features that work like magic. Hopefully you have had an “Oh git” moment and not its sinister opposite, but just in case, here’s a quick git overview. Git is a free, open source platform that provides Source Code Management (SCM). SCM is synonymous with version control and provides a way to track changes made to source code, while keeping a running history of those changes. Those days of manually maintaining backup copies, appending versions to file name ad nauseum are a thing of the past. Being that all changes are tracked, it is quite easy to revert back to previous versions, and more beneficial, test any changes made to source code prior to adding it to the main source code. This is made possible through git’s awesome branching methodology. So, where do we start? For those command line gurus, git is very easy to install on Linux while Git for Windows allows easy installation on Windows and provides a git-supported shell (command line) via git bash. Both versions are easy enough to follow and implement, and there is also a wide-range of tutorials and “how to’s” some of which we’ve provided below. For those who navigate towards using a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to do the heavy lifting, GitHub Desktop answers the call and comes with versions available for both Linux and Windows. There is also a vast amount of reference material to explain GitHub Desktop functionality. What makes git so easy to understand is its branching design concepts. Similar to how a tree has branches that grow away from its trunk, a project has a branch that grows from its base. The difference in git is that the branch at some point merges back to its base after some change has occurred. The terminology commonly used to explain these actions in git are: "create a branch," "commit a change," and "merge a branch." Let’s take a step back and look at the concepts of git which allow it to “save our bacon” when things go wrong with our edits. Commits Every time you make a change to a file tracked by git, it’s up to you to log that change into git’s database of changes. Also, you can log changes to more than one file at a time when these changes are closely related to one another. How git knows that these changes over various files “go together” is when you tell git by grouping the changes into a git structure called a commit. The Trunk Any effort on a project which changes files tracked by git over time shows up in the change history in git as a series, or “chain,” of commits. This chain is called a branch. Branches have a name, or label, so we can differentiate between them. There is a special initial branch, usually called “master” or “main” that is automatically created for you when you tell git to start tracking changes in a directory. Branches New branches can be easily created, starting from any commit on another branch (e.g., the main trunk) to explore any variant of the files (from that point in time), like a feature change, a bug fix, a what-if experiment, and so on. When the changes on the variant branch “check out,” they can be incorporated into the main trunk; otherwise the branch can be saved (i.e., “this might be a good idea for the future!”) or it can be easily discarded. This branching concept is made all the more crucial when other people are changing the project files, not just you. Time Machine So branching sounds like a great idea, but what if you want to switch from a feature branch, back to the main (trunk) branch? What happens to the current state of your project files? The nice thing about git is that when you switch branches (via the checkout command), it takes care of putting your files in the state that you last committed them on the target branch. And it happens very fast! And since a branch label is just a simple pointer to the latest commit on that branch, you can create a branch label on any commit in the “past,” and when you checkout that branch, your files revert to the content at that point in time, making git act as a time machine! Another way to recover the state of a file at some point in the past is to tell git that you want it to show you (via the show command) file such-and-such name at commit such-and-such time. Collaboration So far we’ve been talking about how git manages your project’s file changes as if you were the only one working on the project. Git’s history of changes, in that case, is stored in a special directory on your local machine’s drive. To start collaborating with other people, git has the clone command which makes a copy of your project’s change history (called a repository, or repo for short). You could then pass this copy to another person, but this manual process is cumbersome. Thus, git allows you to post the copy of your repository to a server that is accessible by your teammates. This is called the remote repository, or remote for short. Your teammates can then obtain a copy of the repository from the remote via running the clone command on their local machine. After cloning, any changes made by teammates working independently of one another (by logging commits on their respective local repos) can be coordinated via pushing to, and pulling from, the remote repo. Collaboration Services You may already know about well-known internet-based service offerings that help your team store remote repositories and allow your team to interact with them. Among them are: GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket, but there are several more, including self-hosted options, like Gitea and gitolite. They usually offer more than just a mere store for your remote repositories, like: forking (which is like cloning but happens on the server from user account to user account), issue tracking, discussion threads, wikis, project web pages, access to remote continuous testing, etc. Merging Changes With the idea of one remote and multiple local repos, git allows for team collaboration of changes such that one person’s changes can happen simultaneously with another’s, along parallel lines of effort. When more than one person’s changes need to be incorporated into the main trunk (base), they have to be serialized on the trunk, and any conflicting changes, if they exist, need to be resolved. This process is called merging. A great feature found in most commonly used web-based git collaboration services, like GitLab and GitHub, is the ability to incorporate a commit review process in which a collaborator requests permission to merge changes in a branch into the main trunk (base). In GitLab this is done by the merge request feature, while pull request is used for GitHub, both allowing the assignment of reviewers to those changes. There is nothing like an extra set of eyes on your work! Workflow The main “trunk” is usually where all these changes are logged, after they are reconciled to one another as a result of the merge process, but your team can use whatever git team workflow makes sense for them. Git doesn’t enforce a workflow; it just gives you the low-level tools to manage changes quickly and effectively. In Closing May your project experience be filled with plenty of “Oh git” moments. Here are a few sites we recommend and please keep a lookout for additional blog posts discussing more project-related concepts: -”Official Git Tutorial,” https://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial -"Git Basics Videos,” https://git-scm.com/videos -"Introduction to Git: A Talk by Scott Chacon,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLVvrb2-fY -“Bitbucket,” https://bitbucket.org/product -“Gitea,” https://gitea.io/en-us/ -“GitHub,” https://github.com -“GitLab,” https://about.gitlab.com -“Gitolite,”https://gitolite.com/gitolite #Git #operationsresearch #analyst #CANA #GitHub #Gitolite #GitLab Roque Graciani Roque is a Senior Operations Research Analyst. You can contact him at rgraciani@canallc.com. Rick Hanson Rick is a Senior Operations Research Analyst. You can contact him at rhanson@canallc.com.

The MORS 89th Symposium is next week and CANA is contributing to the community by sharing our unique analytics applications. We will lead two special sessions, present two technical briefs, and provide an esports demonstration. The events summary below lists the topics and times you can interact with CANA. List of Events Improving AI/ML Department of Defense Ethical Testing - WG 35 AI and Autonomous Systems - Tuesday, June 22 - 3 pm - 3:30 pm ET The testing of ethical principles for Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) models that may learn with the addition of new data sources outside the traditional DoD Test and Evaluation (T&E) cycle requires a new process. This presentation proposes a T&E rubric to improve the Department of Defense ML/AI model test effectiveness for acquisition program managers and each program’s Chief Developmental Tester. We evaluate 144 research papers in a DoD testing context categorized by three broad ML classes based on data type (e.g., supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning); makes recommendations on what properties to test for (e.g., correctness, relevance, robustness, efficiency, fairness, interpretability), provides an idealized workflow of how to conduct testing and presents an idealized way to look at where to conduct ML component testing (e.g., data processes, frameworks, and coded algorithms). Applicable T&E methodologies, use, and policy changes are also recommended. The proposed T&E rubric is intended to support Defense Department acquisition policy in DoD 5000.02 and uses the Defense Innovation Board AI Principles: Recommendations on the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence by the Department of Defense February 2020 AI Ethics Principles for DoD. This research was funded by the STAT Center of Excellence (COE). Logistics Community of Practice Special Session - Tuesday, June 22 - 4 pm - 5 pm ET The MORS Logistics Community of Practice is completing our third year. We focus on bringing together an eclectic group of logistics professionals across the National Security Community to discuss the hottest issues, review potential and applied solutions, and network whenever possible. This special session focuses on our 2020-2021 year in review along with discussions of where we want to take the Log COP for the 2021-2022 year. We will spend some time introducing participants and talking through current challenges. Logistics is very broad and touches many professions. Come join us for a candid talk, to meet others in the community, and to hear about where we are headed. Women In MORS Community of Practice Special Session - Tuesday, June 22 - 4 pm - 5 pm ET According to research studies, critical career-enhancing opportunities are shared unevenly by people in positions of power and influence, often without realizing that certain groups are disproportionately excluded. Hard work and technical skill are the foundation of career progress, but without some access to formal and informal networking opportunities, that progress can be stalled. Are you often the only woman at the table in your meetings or do you have few women in your organization? The Women In MORS Community of Practice invites you to a Special Session for their June COP Meeting featuring a panel presentation on effective networking strategies. The panel will feature a number of senior leaders in the national security arena including CANA's President, Rob Cranston! eSports Data Analysis Modeling - Rainbow Six Siege eSports Tournament - Wednesday, June 23 - 4 pm - 5 pm ET CANA eSports held a Rainbow Six Siege tournament in April 2021. The event's goal was to collect data on team tactics, determine critical skill sets, and team makeup using the data that is provided through First Person Shooters (FPS) games such as Rainbow Six Siege. This demo will review the mechanics of holding an eSports tournament event, using the event as an experiment to collect data, and the post-tournament data analysis results. An overview of the game and actual game play video is provided for context. The Distribution Network Model - Friday, June 25 - 10:30 am - 11:00 am ET The 38th Commandant’s Planning Guidance describes new naval operating concepts that present the Marine Corps with new logistics challenges: “Rather than heavily investing in expensive and exquisite capabilities that regional aggressors have optimized their forces to target, naval forces will persist forward with many smaller, low signature, affordable platforms that can economically host a dense array of lethal and non-lethal payloads.” The Marine Corps requires new logistics operating concepts to include supplying many mobile austere bases distributed over thousands of miles. The new logistics paradigm creates a network of supply and demand nodes, serviced by a wide variety of transportation types, that confounds more linear and traditional military force closure modeling approaches. The Marine Corps seeks to determine cargo and equipment prepositioning and numbers, types, and locations of traditional and non-traditional logistics enablers that are optimized to be most responsive while minimizing investment. The Distribution Network Model can determine the most responsive and lowest cost afloat and ashore tailoring plan for inventory and transportation enablers and inform investment decisions to allow selection of the most effective affordable platforms to support Marine Corps future operating concepts. In addition to these events, CANA will also have a booth if you want to learn more about what we are up to at CANA. Feel free to stop by and see what interesting analytical projects we are working on. We hope everyone attending the 89th MORS Symposium has a great time and we look forward to seeing you next week. Walt DeGrange is the Director of Analytics Capabilities. You can contact him at wdegrange@canallc.com.

By Jack Murray, CANA Intern, George Mason University CANA esports R6 Showdown Takeaways CANA hosted its inaugural open-player esports tournament this past April. It was a fast-paced, gripping event, and we gained some fantastic insights into this growing field. The initiating spark to host an esports event grew out of our interest in supporting the esports industry through the use of data analytics. Personally, I have been involved with video games for almost the entirety of my life, and I saw firsthand how quickly esports was growing. I started as a CANA intern during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw most traditional sports put on hold or canceled completely. This led to esports being one of the only sports entertainment options available to anyone and everyone. The easy accessibility, low cost, and variety of esports are contributing factors to its exponential growth. The pandemic may have inflated the true numbers, but esports was already on a path for this type of growth, it was just a matter of time and acceptance by the world. Although esports was expanding, it was still a new and young industry with so much untapped potential. As we looked into how CANA’s analytics could support this industry, we discovered the wide variety of video games that are played at the level of ‘esports’ all have different data to be explored. With the entire industry being a virtual environment, it breeds an abundance of data. There are some data analytics companies that are realizing this as well, but there is so much untapped data remaining. We also reached out and connected with two esports industry leaders, Rebecca Longawa and Wim Stocks. Rebecca is the founder of Happy Warrior, an esports consultant firm, and Wim just recently retired from being the General Manager and CEO of World Gaming & Collegiate Starleague and is now the Head of Partnerships and Commercial at Belong Gaming & Vindex. The three areas we were particularly interested in were: esports recruitment analytics, promoting diversity in gaming through analytics, and being an analytics provider for an esports league. As hosts of the event, we could collect a controlled data sample to conduct a variety of analyses. We selected the game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege for its military-style, tactical gameplay. Our tournament included a mix of high school students, college students, and members of the US Army as part of a semi-pro team called US Army Esports. Some teams were semi-professional teams that had coaches, and others were just friends getting together to join in on the fun. Some were using our tournament as practice for real Rainbow Six League play. This provided us with a truly diverse group of gamers that were a mix of amateur and organized, highly skilled competitors. The event was a three-day tournament from 23 through 25 April 2021. In the best of 3 final series, Psych Ward won 2-0 against US Army Esports; the second game went to the last round of overtime to decide. It was a nail-biter, but Psych Ward won both games and the tournament! Great job, Psych Ward! Overall, the tournament ran smoothly, and we had a great time as hosts. Although we prepared for this tournament for about three months, there were several operational aspects we could have better anticipated. As every first event will have a learning curve, we recognized a few key takeaways. The first is to create alternative bracket systems in case of cancellations and no-shows. On game day, three of our eight teams dropped out. This dismantled our bracket system and required a solution on the spot. We solved the problem by adding a one-time losers bracket for the quarter-final losers. There is no way to be 100% positive each team is going to show up for every game, and we need to be better prepared for that. The second takeaway is to allow substitute roster spots at the time of registration. Life gets in the way sometimes, and it can affect players’ availability to play at the set times. We manually added substitute players, which led to much more work than necessary. The third is that we needed more people on the control end of the tournament. As one of the commentators, I was also the main player support person in the discord chat. Any player could reach out to me individually, or I would be the one in our discord server responsible for responding to them. This would have been better managed with an additional person. We also would have benefitted from having someone to put out social media posts during each match because game details in real-time is exactly what social media users are looking for. It would have helped build awareness of our event and drawn a larger audience if we had someone posting in real-time. CANA’s overall intent in hosting this tournament was to further explore analytics in esports. In that respect, it was an extremely beneficial experience. The most crucial takeaway is that there is a lot more data waiting to be discovered. We ran this particular tournament for one specific game, Rainbow Six Siege, and we also used a data application called R6 Analyst to get the most detailed information on the gameplay. The R6 application gave us a great deal of data to work with for each individual's gameplay statistics. This type of information can provide potential training points to players; inform spectators, scouts, coaches, and sponsors; and support industry game analysis and more, in a growing billion-plus dollar industry. Even with the large amount of data collected from this application, we quickly noticed there were many other aspects of the game that could have been collected. This validated the endless analytical aspects of this one particular game - and it is likely to be the same for all the other video games. At the moment, we feel esports data analytics has only scratched the surface of what information might be collected, and this tournament proved that. The other major takeaway is that the esports industry and community is extremely supportive. We received many suggestions and comments from our competitors and other esports industry leaders on how to make improvements going forward. Everyone wants esports to succeed, so they are always trying to help out. They are looking out for the best interest of esports as a whole, and that mindset is vital to the success of any industry. Lastly, esports and analyzing esports is a blast! This industry is so young, new, and exciting, and we are enjoying every moment of it. We are really looking forward to being a catalyst in furthering the success of esports through the use of data analytics. If you would like to learn more or get involved with future CANA Esports events you can reach out to us at esports@canallc.com or join our Discord at CANA_eSports (discord.com) #esports #esportsanalytics #rainbowsixsiege #CANAesports

To Camp Schreiber's 2021 College Graduates...The CANA Foundation wishes a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to Davion and Josh who both recently graduated from college! Now that you have completed your time within the Camp Schreiber program, the CANA family wishes you the very best in the next chapter of your lives. We know you will do amazing things! Davion Josh CANA Foundation, the internal charitable arm of CANA Advisors, was founded in 2017 with a mission to “give back to the communities we live and work in.” Camp Schreiber was one of the first initiatives that CANA Foundation undertook by providing financial support for Camp Schreiber’s tutoring program as well as mentorship to several of the young boys in the Camp Schreiber program. It is wonderful to see the success Davion and Josh have had academically as a direct result of the educational support Camp Schreiber provided them since middle school. In an age of quick hits and instant gratification, Camp Schreiber stands out as a beacon of hope and long-term commitment to the deserving young men in Wilmington, NC accepted into their program. Designed around a ten-year promise made to each of the boys, to support them from middle school through college graduation, Camp Schreiber is fully committed to the young men selected to participate and invest in the students, their families, and their education. CANA Advisors is proud to have been a supporter of these future leaders in their communities! #campschreiber #futureleaders https://www.instagram.com/camp.schreiber/ https://www.facebook.com/Camp-Schreiber-Foundation-469115433296867/ Kenny McRostie Kenny is the Senior Operations Manager at CANA Advisors and the CANA Foundation Manager and lives in Wilmington, NC. kmcrostie@canallc.com CANA Advisors is a veteran-owned, woman-owned, equal opportunity company based out of Gainesville, Virginia in the United States of America. © 2021 CANA LLC.

A Remembrance and Reflection on Memorial Day. As we wake up today to spend time with our families and friends and enjoy the day together, we have to take the time to remember what Memorial Day is really about. According to History.com, the definition of Memorial Day is, “an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.” Now, everyone has a different way of celebrating this holiday, and Memorial Day also has a different meaning for every person. We asked our team, What does Memorial Day mean to you? Here is what Memorial Day means to some within Team CANA: “Remembering and Honoring those who have given all in defense of this country. I usually visit a Veterans Cemetery with a group and plant flags in remembrance. I have too many friends who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I try to call their widows or relatives and just let them know I am still thinking about them.” “I reflect on the first time I walked the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC - it truly was quieter there, I swear I heard nothing - no vehicles, no voices, no birds. Just hushed quiet. I touched many of the names, not knowing any of them, but realizing as I ran my hand over the names that these were people who died in service to our nation. I cried a bit, and it was still quiet. I don't ever want to forget nor be grateful for their ultimate sacrifice, whether or not I agree with the reasons for our country engaging in the war or the conflict.” “More often than not, we have joined our friends in a Ride to Remember. They lost their eldest son in the war in Iraq and we all have lost a number of friends who gave their all.” “A reminder that the freedom of today rode on the backs of those before us.” “I admit it's not much, but it is near where I live so try and get over to Grandview Cemetery and take a drive through it to look at all the flags people post there to honor the fallen buried there and elsewhere. Just to give a silent thanks to the some I knew and many I did not. We will go throughout this holiday weekend catching up with people around us, and we remember it as a day of community and relaxation. But we ask that you think of this day as a time not only to remember but also to reflect on why we have a Memorial Day, why we get together with our family and friends, and ask yourself and your loved ones, What does memorial day mean to you? CANA Advisors is a veteran-owned, woman-owned, equal opportunity company based out of Gainesville, Virginia in the United States of America.

"Leadership is not about the next election, it's about the next generation" -Simon Sinek. We all know this to be true: it is the next generation that will drive technology, demand innovation, and find solutions. At CANA, we see it as our responsibility to help pass the torch from one generation to the next through mentorship, training, and professional support. Our CANA Futures Program is the culmination of several years of effort and tinkering, finding the right mix of community outreach, deciding what knowledge to impart, and making it all come together. CANA’s goal is to continue its deep support of veterans hiring programs while also embracing universities’ student up-and-comers. We very specifically want to encourage diversity in this program, seeking out opportunities to work with people from different walks of life, different experiences, and different talents. This past year found us kicking off an official program in the midst of some trying months. Many outside agency programs came to a standstill as they tried to navigate restrictions. We found our years of virtual work came in handy, as we had something to offer that didn’t need much adaptation to the times. It also gave us the opportunity to dive deep into special aspects of our program with fewer outside competing interests. Our Veterans Program is the most established element of the CANA Futures Program. We have engaged with the Hiring Our Heroes and SkillBridge Programs for a number of years, actively seeking to bring in transitioning veterans and/or their spouses into CANA as Fellows for up to 12 weeks at a time. These programs provide CANA with a limitless and diverse pool of talent. Applicants are eager, versatile, and more than capable of juggling their military transitions with civilian career exploration. Engagement with college students and graduates has matured this year into a cohesive, fully articulated Corporate Internship Program. We are actively recruiting for college students, freshman through senior, as well as young adults exploring the professional community. Part of this effort includes participating in outreach efforts such as resume reviews, virtual lectures, and Q&A sessions with college Career Services. CANA has also created both paid and unpaid internships of varying lengths, to include collaboration with universities for internship credits. We are thrilled that of our most recent interns, one is graduating in May 2021 with a degree in Sports Management from Loyola University, and the other is starting a George Mason University practicum to earn credits with us over the summer. In their time with CANA, these two individuals will be able to see the culmination of a remarkable project they were involved in from every aspect of development, research, execution, and analysis. Our CANA interns helped to plan, market, and run the first-ever CANA eSports Tournament in April 2021. Independent, virtual teams signed up to compete in a live, multi-round, elimination tournament of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. On top of their many other responsibilities, the interns performed as tournament hosts, sharing the game action with competitors and spectators. Afterwards, they are assisting CANA in its deep analysis of the collected data, building insights into esports analytics. We are excited to see how projects like this increase the interns’ professional scope. We think the CANA Futures Program is a great opportunity - for us as a company as well as for the young men and women who join us. To them, technologies and processes have always evolved and advanced at an exceptional rate; it is their normal, even if it feels new to many of us. There is an inherent belief that innovation is a given. This is a mindset we intend to embrace - there is always a better way to do things, and we can do it. If you’d like to learn more about the CANA Futures Program, please reach out to Cherish Joostberns, CANA Resource Lead, at cjoostberns@canallc.com.

A lot of changes are taking place as we move out of spring and head into summer. School may be ending, certain travel restrictions may be lifted, and perhaps we will find the warmer weather will allow for more in person connecting. One thing we know for sure - people are revving up for summer sports and esports! As we profile in this newsletter, with the large help of our successful internship program, CANA Advisors delved into the rapidly growing esports community by launching its CANA esports intelligence analytics and by hosting an inaugural esports tournament. Whether you are into traditional sports or the esports community, we hope these articles get you revved up for Summer. Also, check out our upcoming events at the end of the newsletter where our team presents on esports, and we participate in various conferences on technologies and innovation strategies. So, game on and have a great gaming summer! ~ Team CANA eSports CANA Futures Program By Cherish Joostberns "Leadership is not about the next election, it's about the next generation" -Simon Sinek. We all know this to be true: it is the next generation that will drive technology, demand innovation, and find solutions. At CANA, we see it as our responsibility to help pass the torch from one generation to the next through mentorship, training, and professional support. Our CANA Futures Program is the culmination of several years of effort and tinkering, finding the right mix of community outreach, deciding what knowledge to impart, and making it all come together. CANA’s goal is to continue its deep support of veterans hiring programs while also to embrace universities’ student up-and-comers. We very specifically want to encourage diversity in this program, seeking out opportunities to work with people from different walks of life, different experiences, and different talents. This past year found us kicking off an official program in the midst of some trying months. Many outside agency programs came to a standstill as they tried to navigate restrictions. We found our years of virtual work came in handy, as we had something to offer that didn’t need much adaptation to the times. It also gave us the opportunity to dive deep into special aspects of our program with fewer outside competing interests. Our Veterans Program is the most established element of the CANA Futures Program. We have engaged with the Hiring Our Heroes and SkillBridge Programs for a number of years, actively seeking to bring in transitioning veterans and/or their spouses into CANA as Fellows for up to 12 weeks at a time. These programs provide CANA with a limitless and diverse pool of talent. Applicants are eager, versatile, and more than capable of juggling their military transitions with civilian career exploration. Engagement with college students and graduates has matured this year into a cohesive, fully articulated Corporate Internship Program. We are actively recruiting for college students, freshman through senior, as well as young adults exploring the professional community. Part of this effort includes participating in outreach efforts such as resume reviews, virtual lectures, and Q&A sessions with college Career Services. CANA has also created both paid and unpaid internships of varying lengths, to include collaboration with universities for internship credits. We are thrilled that of our most recent interns, one is graduating in May 2021 with a degree in Sports Management from Loyola University, and the other is starting a George Mason University practicum to earn credits with us over the summer. In their time with CANA, these two individuals will be able to see the culmination of a remarkable project they were involved in from every aspect of development, research, execution, and analysis. Our CANA interns helped to plan, market, and run the first-ever CANA eSports Tournament in April 2021. Independent, virtual teams signed up to compete in a live, multi-round, elimination tournament of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. On top of their many other responsibilities, the interns performed as tournament hosts, sharing the game action with competitors and spectators. Afterwards, they are assisting CANA in its deep analysis of the collected data, building insights into esports analytics. We are excited to see how projects like this increase the interns’ professional scope. We think the CANA Futures Program is a great opportunity - for us as a company as well as for the young men and women who join us. To them, technologies and processes have always evolved and advanced at an exceptional rate; it is their normal, even if it feels new to many of us. There is an inherent belief that innovation is a given. This is a mindset we intend to embrace - there is always a better way to do things, and we can do it. If you’d like to learn more about the CANA Futures Program, please reach out to Cherish Joostberns, CANA Resource Lead, at cjoostberns@canallc.com. TEAM CANA MEMBER SHOWCASE Jack Murray & Thomas Murphy | Sports Analytics Interns Jack Murray Sports Analytics Intern Jack is currently a Junior at George Mason University, studying Sports Management. He has had a passion for sports, specifically hockey, throughout his entire life. Jack played hockey for 14 years and was also a youth hockey referee. Throughout school, I always knew I wanted to make a difference in the sporting world, and CANA has given me the opportunity to do so. When I was brought into CANA last May, I was tasked with finding areas in the sports analytics market that we could support. One unique area of interest to me was esports analytics. Last year the COVID-19 pandemic put a lot of sports on hold. At one point esports was the only sport still being played, and because of this, its popularity grew exponentially. Due to its completely virtual environment, there is a plethora of data that has yet to be explored. What I hope to be a part of, here at CANA, is helping people understand the data in the world of esports. Whether that is recruitment analytics, promoting diversity in gaming, or being an analytics provider of an esports league, I think we can be a catalyst in furthering the success of esports through data analytics. Thomas Scully Sports Analytics Intern Thomas Scully is a recent graduate of Loyola University, Chicago, with a degree in Sports Management and a minor in Marketing. Thomas has had a passion for sports since he was a child, watching SportsCenter in the mornings before school, and reading the sports sections of all the newspapers. I craved every last bit of information I could get my hands on regarding the world of sports. I played basketball for about 15 years, and later on as a teenager, became a coach as well, teaching young kids the basics of the game. Since I began at Loyola, I have been blessed with many opportunities to learn about the sporting world from a business perspective and gained a wealth of knowledge from various activities such as hackathons and Loyola’s first esport tournament in the Fall of 2019. When I came to CANA in December of 2020, I knew I had an opportunity to learn more about a different aspect of the sporting world and how it operates in real time. Being involved with analytics, especially esport analytics, has been fascinating to dive into, as it truly is the way of the future, with more and more people becoming acclimated to an all-virtual climate of competition and recreation. Digging into the analytics of esports could not be a more important task for someone so intrigued about sports. This is because esports is still a relatively untapped industry, with so many different unexplored avenues to travel on. However we use these analytics we draw from esports, whether it’s identifying patterns in a Rainbow Six Siege match or defining metrics for potential esports collegiate/professional recruitment, we are going to make the most of it and embed CANA and its services into the world of esports. CANA’s Inaugural Esports Tournament Lessons Learned from the R6 Showdown By Jack Murray, CANA Intern, George Mason University CANA esports R6 Showdown Takeaways CANA hosted its inaugural open player esports tournament this past April. It was a fast-paced, gripping event, and we gained some fantastic insights into this growing field. The initiating spark to host an esports event grew out of our interest in supporting the esports industry through the use of data analytics. Personally, I have been involved with video games for almost the entirety of my life, and I saw first hand how quickly esports were growing. I started as a CANA intern during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw most traditional sports put on hold or cancelled completely. This led to esports being one of the only sports entertainment options available to anyone and everyone. The easy accessibility, low cost, and variety of esports are contributing factors to its exponential growth. The pandemic may have inflated the true numbers, but esports was already on a path for this type of growth, it was just a matter of time and acceptance by the world. Although esports was expanding, it was still a new and young industry with so much untapped potential. As we looked into how CANA’s analytics could support this industry, we discovered the wide variety of video games that are played at the level of ‘esports’ all have different data to be explored. With the entire industry being a virtual environment, it breeds an abundance of data. There are some data analytics companies that are realizing this as well, but there is so much untapped data remaining. We also reached out and connected with two esports industry leaders, Rebecca Longawa and Wim Stocks. Rebecca is the founder of Happy Warrior, an esports consultant firm, and Wim just recently retired from being the General Manager and CEO of World Gaming & Collegiate Starleague, and is now the Head of Partnerships and Commercial at Belong Gaming & Vindex. The three areas we were particularly interested in were: esports recruitment analytics, promoting diversity in gaming through analytics, and being an analytics provider for an esports league. As hosts of the event, we could collect a controlled data sample to conduct a variety of analyses. We selected the game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege for its military-style, tactical gameplay. Our tournament included a mix of high school students, college students, and members of the US Army as part of a semi-pro team called US Army Esports. Some teams were semi-professional teams that had coaches, and others were just friends getting together to join in on the fun. Some were using our tournament as practice for real Rainbow Six League play. This provided us with a truly diverse group of gamers that were a mix of amateur and organized, highly skilled competitors. The event was a three day tournament from 23 through 25 April, 2021. In the best of 3 final series, Psych Ward won 2-0 against US Army Esports; the second game went to the last round of overtime to decide. It was a nail-biter, but Psych Ward won both games and the tournament! Great job, Psych Ward! Overall, the tournament ran smoothly, and we had a great time as hosts. Although we prepared for this tournament for about three months, there were several operational aspects we could have better anticipated. As every first event will have a learning curve, we recognized a few key takeaways. The first is to create alternative bracket systems in case of cancellations and no-shows. On game day, three of our eight teams dropped out. This dismantled our bracket system and required a solution on the spot. We solved the problem by adding a one-time losers bracket for the quarter-final losers. There is no way to be 100% positive each team is going to show up for every game, and we need to be better prepared for that. The second takeaway is to allow substitute roster spots at the time of registration. Life gets in the way sometimes, and it can affect players’ availability to play at the set times. We manually added substitute players, which led to much more work than necessary. The third is that we needed more people on the control end of the tournament. As one of the commentators, I was also the main player support person in the discord chat. Any player could reach out to me individually, or I would be the one in our discord server responsible for responding to them. This would have been better managed with an additional person. We also would have benefitted from having someone to put out social media posts during each match because game details in real-time is exactly what social media users are looking for. It would have helped build awareness of our event and drawn a larger audience if we had someone posting in real-time. CANA’s overall intent in hosting this tournament was to further explore analytics in esports. In that respect, it was an extremely beneficial experience. The most crucial takeaway is that there is a lot more data waiting to be discovered. We ran this particular tournament for one specific game, Rainbow Six Siege, and we also used a data application called R6 Analyst to get the most detailed information on the gameplay. The R6 application gave us a great deal of data to work with for each individual's gameplay statistics. This type of information can provide potential training points to players; inform spectators, scouts, coaches, and sponsors; and support industry game analysis and more, in a growing billion-plus dollar industry. Even with the large amount of data collected from this application, we quickly noticed there were many other aspects of the game that could have been collected. This validated the endless analytical aspects of this one particular game - and it is likely to be the same for all the other video games. At the moment, we feel esports data analytics has only scratched the surface of what information might be collected, and this tournament proved that. The other major takeaway is that the esports industry and community is extremely supportive. We received many suggestions and comments from our competitors and other esports industry leaders on how to make improvements going forward. Everyone wants esports to succeed, so they are always trying to help out. They are looking out for the best interest of esports as a whole, and that mindset is vital to the success of any industry. Lastly, esports and analyzing esports is a blast! This industry is so young, new, and exciting, and we are enjoying every moment of it. We are really looking forward to being a catalyst in furthering the success of esports through the use of data analytics. If you would like to learn more, or get involved with future CANA Esports events you can reach out to us at esports@canallc.com or join our Discord at CANA_eSports (discord.com) #esports #esportsanalytics #rainbowsixsiege #CANAesports CANA EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS MORS 89th Symposium: Analytics to Enhance Decision Making (21-25 June 2021) Join Team CANA as we attend the 89th MORS Symposium being held June 21-25, 2021. The focus for this symposium will be Analytics to Enhance Decision Making. The MORS Symposium is a signature event attended annually by over 1,000 Operation Research professionals. The Women In MORS Community of Practice will be hosting an interactive, virtual discussion during the upcoming 89th MORS Symposium. A diverse group of industry and military leaders will explore the topic of Effective Networking Strategies during a special hosted panel on June 22, 2021, at 4:00 pm EST. Registration information can be found here (89th Symposium (mors.org). Checkout our CANA Connection Podcast ALL THINGS ESPORTS with Happy Warrior, Rebecca Longawa In this episode of the CANA Connection Podcast, join our host, Rob Cranston, and CANA Sports Analytics Intern, Jack Murray, as they talk with the Happy Warrior and gaming industry leader Rebecca Longawa about esports, its growth in the past year, its marketing, how the traditional sporting industry is getting involved, women in gaming, and the future of the esports industry in general. Podcast | cana (canallc.com) SAVE THE DATES for these upcoming Electric Mobility and Unmanned Logistics events at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar on June 23rd and 24th, 2021. Join Team CANA as we go on site at MCAS Miramar in California, for these two epic events hosted by SoCal Tech Bridge and NavalX Next Strategy: Day One is Electric and Unmanned Logistics Demonstration Day and is a follow-up to 2020’s two-day Future Unmanned Logistics Systems (ULS) Energy Logistics Enabling Deployed Operations (FUELED Ops) virtual event. Experience how commercial unmanned platforms and supporting technologies are shaping the future of logistics operations!! For more information or to register for the event visit canallc.com/eul-demoday. Day Two is the first Electric Mobility Symposium. Government and industry leaders will communicate how electric mobility technology can and will be used on military bases, in the field, and into the future. Be a part of this exciting technology launch. For more information or to register for the Electric Mobility Symposium please visit canallc.com/electric-mobility Privacy Statement | Subscribe | Unsubscribe CANA Advisors 7371 Atlas Walk Way Gainesville, Virginia 20155 Telephone (703) 317-7378 Facsimile (571) 248-2563 The CANA Connection Newsletter Copyright ©2021 CANA LLC.

The Big Data Cup was an open-source hockey analytics contest, set up by stathletes.com, for students and professionals. There were two sets of data available to analyze, scouting data from the men’s Canadian junior hockey league and a Women’s Olympic hockey data set. I was part of the CANA team put on this task, along with CANA’s Walt DeGrange, Lucia Darrow, and Thomas Scully. This contest was the first time that I had participated in an analytics project, and it was extremely interesting and educational. We set up a hackathon to work on the majority of the contest all in one day. A hackathon is a scheduled workshop where a larger number of people get together to collaborate on a specific project. Before the hackathon, we were tasked with going over the data set and understanding the meaning of each row and column. During the hackathon, we established what research question we wanted to explore, and how we wanted to think outside of the box. We knew that everyone was going to want to analyze something involving goals for or goals against, but that is one of the most analyzed aspects of hockey already. We decided to take a deeper dive into the passing strategies of each team, and how they changed due to events in the games. Passing strategy dictates the flow of a hockey game, a major factor in influencing in-game strategic coaching decisions. North-South and East-West passing, referring to the direction of the pass, are two key strategies considered in this analysis. In this report, we explore the question: which passing strategy did teams employ under different game scenarios? Using the Women’s Olympic hockey data set provided, we set out to uncover insights regarding the usage of the two strategies. In this analysis, we explore the relationship between score difference and passing strategy through visualization, clustering, and in-depth game analysis. Exhibit A. A Sample of the Game Visualization and Analysis This analysis took a bit longer than expected, leading to two hackathon sessions. In the first one, we spent a good amount of time developing the algorithm to properly identify which passes were considered North-South and East-West. While the second hackathon was mainly focused on creating the visualizations for our analysis. The results of this analysis showed us many things. The first being that teams who are losing games usually become more aggressive with their passing strategy, North-South passing. It also provided key areas where passing the puck was most successful and most intercepted, giving coaches a sense of where to and where not to pass on the ice. However, it was what our visuals did not show us that helped our analysis the most (see above Exhibit A). The empty areas, on the ice, in our visuals were where passes were rarely even attempted, which led us to believe that is where the opposing team was set up. What this does is help coaches create a defensive strategy to counter the passing strategy used by each team or to deploy an offensive passing strategy that will be the most effective. Again, it would all depend on the team that you are facing because even though there are similar patterns made by every team, each team has their own strategy and set plays that you have to account for. Overall this was an extremely fun event to be a part of, especially for someone who has a strong passion for hockey and is new to programming and analytics! By: Jack Murray, Sports Analytics Intern Jack is an intern with CANA Advisors. To learn more about CANA’s internship program, please contact Ms. Cherish Joosteberns at cjoostberns@canallc.com.

Two recent articles have been published on the subject of military readiness, and specifically, how it ought to be quantitatively assessed. Both pieces referenced Richard Betts’ 1995 book, Military Readiness: Concepts, Choices, Consequences, and engage on Betts’ three critical readiness questions: what should we be ready for, when is it that we need to be ready, and what needs to be ready? In Redefine Readiness or Lose, published on the website, War On The Rocks, Commandant of the Marine Corps, General David H. Berger, and Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., address these questions and demand an analytical framework capable of answering them. An idea getting their attention is the use of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and probability to predict the changes in future military capabilities from current readiness decisions. In other words, is it possible to predict now how the resources requested, utilized, and allocated now will affect military readiness far into the future? By coincidence, the Military Operations Research (MOR) Journal, a peer-reviewed academic journal, concurrently published Military Readiness Modeling: Changing the Question from 'Ready or Not?' to 'How Ready for What’? The article, written by CANA Advisors’ Connor McLemore, and co-authors Shaun Doheney, Sam Savage, and Philip Fahringer, paraphrase Betts’ trio of questions as: how ready for what? The authors describe how a better data framework can lead to better military readiness metrics, which could then lead to better readiness and cost tradeoff discussions. Their proposed data framework, if implemented, would go a long way towards helping the military readiness system to answer the two service chiefs’ questions. In their words, [a] data framework that uses stochastic scenario libraries would allow the military to characterize its probability of being ready for foreseeable missions across all its organizational levels while allowing for mathematically sound aggregation of the readiness of its units. This comprehensive approach would benefit from a stochastic representation of readiness that allows lower-level readiness reports to be rolled up into higher-level reports across unit types and military branches. Such an approach allows planners, commanders, and decision makers to speak the same language to communicate, ‘How ready are units for what?’ (McLemore et al., 2021, p. 23) Their analytic approach does not remove subjectivity from the readiness calculations of “boots-on-the-ground” commanders. However, the authors argue that this subjectivity based on a structured, auditable approach towards explicitly acknowledged uncertainty is likely to outrun subjectivity alone. They provide a tool that could be extremely valuable to military commanders and planners, greatly expanding their available knowledge of present and future military capability. The authors’ approach also shows potential to conserve enormous amounts of valuable military resources including time, money, manpower, and material. CANA believes this is exciting content, and we know it will continue to generate meaningful discussion. We are pleased to provide a link to both timely articles here Redefine Readiness or Lose and here Military Readiness Modeling: Changing the Question from 'Ready or Not?' to 'How Ready for What’? and encourage your feedback and continued conversation. Can the future be foretold? We also have a PDF available here for you to view the Military Readiness Modeling: Changing the Question from 'Ready or Not?' to 'How Ready for What’? article. Article by CANA Resource Lead, Cherish Joostberns , and Principal Operations Research Analyst, Connor McLemore.

Wrapping up Women's History Month, we have reflected on the female analyst, scientist, researcher, filmmaker, leader, author, and so many more innovative roles that women have taken to call their own... These women didn’t just make history, they paved the way for the future. How can we use the tools these women have provided us? How do we continue to celebrate women all year long? We have some ideas: 1. Educate ourselves Going forward from Women’s History Month, we have to continue to educate ourselves on the women who have paved the way... No matter what industry you are in, there were so many women who fought for your place to be there. A great place to start is to read up on the history of women’s rights and how they have evolved. You can see a full timeline here: https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/womens-history-us-timeline 2. Get involved with your local women's group We all need our gal pals, that's what makes us stronger! When we come together, we can accomplish anything. There are so many women in your local area you can connect with and build a community. Many will have the same interests as you. Meetup.com has a locator to show you where there is a women’s group nearby: https://www.meetup.com/topics/womens-empowerment/ 3. Support women-owned businesses From the beginning of time, women have been creating and producing things we need for our everyday lives. The best thing you can do is support women-owned businesses. You can find a women-owned business for all your needs at:https://www.womenownedlogo.com/buy-women-owned-directory 4. Mentor the next generation of women The most important thing we can do as women is open the door for the women and girls after us. When we leave this world, we want to make sure the next generation keeps building on all the hard work that has been done before. The next generation of girls needs guidance and that is why it’s key for us to be there. Your input is valuable. You can join a mentoring program to help mentor young girls in your local community, or throughout the world. Some great programs include: https://www.womantowomanmentoring.org/ https://www.iambeautiful.org/hope-mentoring-program/ https://www.suwn.org/ https://girlsinc.org/girls-inc-mentors-support-girls-every-day/ 5. Keep being the best woman you can be Women face a lot of adversity, and you are stronger than you think. But, every step is a milestone to becoming a better woman. Keep going forward and keep building upward, for the future is full of women like you. The most important lesson we can learn from Women’s History Month is how we can support and respect all women. From the scientist to the filmmaker, we are all paving a way in this world. We are here to show the next female generation how much their part matters, and how it will continue to make history. Let us continue to honor the past so we can make a better future. Kassie McRostie is the Digital Media Coordinator at CANA Advisors. If you would like to get in touch with Kassie, you can reach her at kassmcrostie@canallc.com or on Linkedin. CANA Advisors is a veteran-owned, woman-owned, equal opportunity company based out of Gainesville, Virginia in the United States of America.

CANA Advisors’ Director of Programs & Project Management, Connie McKissack, has been a professional in project management for over 18 years. She has seen first-hand the evolution of the Project Management Professional (PMP), and what it contributes to the field. In Part II of our series, Connie provides her nuanced and thoughtful opinion about project management certification and offers essential exam guidance. The Importance of PMP Certification A recurring question in the project management field is whether organizations should hire only PMP-certified Project Managers. Although the credibility of focused study, training, and examination is something to be considered - and the whole industry has built itself on passing the exam - institutionally, we are not necessarily living the concepts. If an organization seeks only certified PMPs, the focus should be understanding how the Project Manager, armed with a full kit of knowledge from many different disciplines, can help extract key practices and create the most effective methods for their teams. Hiring decisions should be based on your project practice maturity, pre-existing organizational project knowledge, and the types of projects your teams execute. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Remember that pre-2021 certified Project Managers do not have to retake the exam. And, if they maintain their credentials, those PMs will never have to sit for an updated 2021 PMP exam. While holding a PMP certification adds some credibility to a candidate's resume, it may not be required since acquiring knowledge and taking a test are two different approaches and activities. If an organization can take a program and project management mentoring and coaching approach to onboarding new Project Managers, it will have provided a better foundation for actual Project Management practice. Organizations can offer constructive support by encouraging autonomy, supporting leadership training, and encouraging smart change and risk management. Essential Exam Guidance For those individuals and organizations that have decided PMP certification is requisite, we offer the following observations and guidance. Having familiarity with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide might benefit an inexperienced individual desirous of managing projects, but the 2021 PMP exam is not based on PMBOK; it is only a reference. The 2021 PMP exam does focus on leading projects, being a servant leader, Agile-like concepts and practices, methodology choices and tailoring, and communication with stakeholders. Once registered, you have one year to take the exam. You can start by learning more about PMP on the PMI.org website.2 These authorized materials are provided after you register for the exam: 2021 PMP Examination Content Outline3 Project Management Process Groups and Knowledge Areas4 Agile Practice Guide5 Specific keys to success include PMI Authorized PMP Exam Preparation materials (focuses on five lessons): Creating a High-Performing Team Starting the Project Doing the Work Keeping the Team on Track Keeping the Business in Mind To sit for the exam you will still need the same required experience managing projects, or a specific education requirement, as well as 35 contact hours of training (Professional Development Units or PDUs). Once you pass the exam, you must renew at three-year intervals and invest time in appropriate Professional Development. You can earn PDUs in multiple ways, but organizations need to understand the real costs of PMP certification as they hire team members. Of the skills assessed in the examination, communication ability is key. It is the most important skill a project manager can possess, regardless of professional certification. Communication is absolutely critical to Project Manager roles in the virtual workspace. Project Managers who understand and can employ effective asynchronous communication techniques will lead the virtual pack. This is validated daily here at CANA Advisors, where virtual work has been the standard for over a decade. Although process has a place, capable communication tactics inside projects, and the ability to lead a team to execute and deliver, are what enables Project Managers to take their teams across the finish line. Leaders know how important it is to adapt and progress in their respective industries. We would love to hear your thoughts on PMP certification, the 2021 changes, and how it impacts you or your organization. Share with us on social media @canaadvisors, or contact Connie McKissack directly at cmckissack@canallc.com. Connie McKissack is CANA’s Director of Programs & Project Management and is responsible for driving excellence in program management practices and delivering project management activities to clients. Did you happen to catch our CANA Connection Podcast on Project Management and the New 2021 PMI Certification? In this episode, our host Rob Cranston talks with Project Managers and fellow CANA team members, Connie McKissack, Jason Fincher, and Hannah Wallace. Learn more about Program/Project Management, and the Project Management Institute's (PMI) PMP 2021 Certification. (CANA Connection Podcast Link)