How to Fill Out DA Form 7906: Army Leader IDP Blocks and Signatures

To fill out DA Form 7906, the Army’s Individual Development Plan, work through nine numbered blocks across two pages: your name, short- and long-term goals, a three-part self-assessment covering fitness, cognitive skills, and leadership, a 90-day action list, a career timeline out to twenty years, and a comments section. Then route it for three signatures — yours, your supervisor’s, and a reviewer’s — either through the Army Career Tracker at actnow.army.mil or as a signed PDF.¹

Before You Start

Download a blank copy from the Army Publishing Directorate at armypubs.army.mil, or log in to the Army Career Tracker at actnow.army.mil to build it inside the portal. Most units now handle IDPs through ACT because it routes signatures automatically, but the PDF is still valid if your leadership prefers paper.

Have a few things in front of you before you open the form: your most recent ACFT scorecard, any Athena assessments or PME course feedback you’ve received, and the DA PAM that governs your career field — DA PAM 600-3 for officers, DA PAM 600-25 for warrant officers, or DA PAM 600-4 for NCOs. You’ll pull from all of these as you go.

Page One: Blocks 1 Through 7

Block 1: Leader’s Name

Enter your own full name as it appears in your personnel records. The block is titled “Leader’s Name,” but it identifies the person the IDP belongs to, not your supervisor.

Block 2: Short-Term Goals

List personal and professional goals with a zero-to-twelve-month horizon. Write each one using SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Specific.² “Improve physical fitness” is weak. “Score 540 or higher on the ACFT by March 2027” is a SMART goal your supervisor can actually approve and resource.

Block 3: Long-Term Goals

Same format as Block 2, but the horizon stretches from one to four years.² Mix personal and professional items freely — a degree program sits alongside attending the Advanced Leader Course. Be honest here. Writing down Ranger School when you have no intention of attending turns the IDP into paperwork instead of a plan.

Block 4: Physical Fitness

Enter data from your most recent ACFT along with other fitness metrics such as a 20-kilometer ruck march time or results from the Human Performance Diagnostic Tool.² Use actual numbers. “Good runner” is not useful. A two-mile time of 14:32 is.

Block 5: Cognitive Skills

Cover critical thinking, reading comprehension, writing ability, and verbal communication.² Identify your strongest areas and the ones you need to work on. Point to evidence — a course grade, a written product your rater called out, feedback from a briefing.

Block 6: Leadership and Technical Competencies

This block covers leadership skills, technical and tactical knowledge (warfighting), and self-awareness.² Pull directly from Athena assessment feedback, course performance reports, or graded PME exercises when you have them. “Scored in the top 10 percent on Structured Self-Development” gives your supervisor something to work with. “Strong leader” does not.

Block 7: Immediate Actions (Next 90 Days)

Narrow the focus to what you can accomplish in the next three months. Block 7 is the bridge between your current state and the short-term goals in Block 2. If your one-year goal is finishing a college course, your 90-day action might be researching programs and submitting a tuition assistance request. Don’t skip this block. It’s the most actionable part of the form, and leaving it blank signals that you haven’t thought past the abstract.

Page Two: Blocks 8 and 9

Block 8: Career Timeline and Planning

Block 8 is the biggest section on the form. It has several sub-areas, each addressed with SMART goals framed on a five-to-ten-year horizon:²

Career goals within your branch or functional area, focused on the senior-level positions or assignments you want to hold.
Broadening assignments outside your primary career field — joint billets, recruiting duty, instructor positions.
Next PME considerations, including timing and options.
Family considerations such as geographic preferences, dual-military coordination, or other factors affecting assignments. If you leave this blank and you have real constraints, your assignment manager has no visibility into them.
Educational goals, meaning degree programs, certifications, or technical training.
Promotion and selection board information, including projected board dates and HRC milestones.
Key and developmental assignments as identified in DA PAM 600-3, DA PAM 600-25, or DA PAM 600-4 for your grade.

Block 8 also contains a visual planning bar tracking your years of service at five-year intervals out to twenty years. Plot your PME windows, promotion zones, planned assignments, and retirement eligibility on it. Laying everything out in one place tends to expose conflicts you’d otherwise miss, like a broadening assignment scheduled in the same year as a resident school.

Block 9: Additional Comments

Open space for anything that doesn’t fit the other blocks. Use it to give your supervisor context — an unusual career path that needs explanation, a pending medical consideration, or a mentorship relationship shaping your goals.

Signatures and Submission

The IDP isn’t valid until you, your supervisor, and a reviewer have all signed and dated it.¹ Most units route this through the Army Career Tracker portal:

Log in at actnow.army.mil, open the “My IDP” tab, and select “Create New IDP.”³
Once every field is complete, click “Submit.” The status changes from “Draft” and the IDP routes to your first-line leader as identified in ACT.⁴
Your leader can edit it, then approve it or return it for revisions. You can track the status inside the portal.³

If your unit uses the PDF, fill it out, print or save it, and route it manually for the three signatures. Either way, keep a personal copy. ACT stores the digital version, but access can be spotty during system migrations, and a personal backup saves you from redoing the work.

Keeping It Current

An IDP that sits untouched for a year is dead paperwork. Revisit it at these checkpoints:

Your annual evaluation period, so your developmental goals stay in sync with what your rater is evaluating on the OER or NCOER.
A change of duty station, since mission requirements, training resources, and PME opportunities shift with your new location.
A promotion or reclassification, which changes the milestones and key developmental assignments listed in your governing DA PAM.
Quarterly counseling sessions. Bringing the form gives the conversation a reference point.

Updating doesn’t mean starting over. Move completed goals off the active list. Revise or replace goals that turned out to be unrealistic. Add opportunities that have appeared since your last version. Treated as a five-minute tune-up, the form stays useful. Treated as a once-a-year project, it becomes something you dread.

Mistakes to Avoid

A few errors show up in almost every weak IDP:

Vague goals with no measurable outcome. “Become a better communicator” gives no one anything to track. Tie every goal to something countable or completable.
Copying someone else’s plan. Supervisors notice when every soldier in the section lists identical long-term goals.
Leaving Block 8’s family section blank when you have real constraints. Silence there hides factors that will affect your next move.
Listing goals you’ve already completed. Finished items belong on your record brief and evaluation, not your development plan.
Skipping Block 7. Without a 90-day action, the rest of the form is just a wish list.

1
Arkansas National Guard. Instructions for Completing Individual Development Plan
2
NCO Worldwide. DA Form 7906 US Army Individual Development Plan
3
Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. How to Create an IDP in Army Career Tracker
4
Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. ACT User Quick Start Guide