Powerful Example: F-22 Program Office uses DevOps on a Hardware Platform. Recommended. On agile = level of effort: “To properly match the contractor effort with a new development approach, a “level of effort” for prime development labor was adopted.” Bravo! See the comment section here for some additional discussion of that with the insightful David Tate.
Boeing’s Autonomous Fighter Jet Will Fly Over the Australian Outback. “Australia has chipped in US$27 million, but a bulk of the cost is being borne by Boeing.” Why not in partnership with the US? If the system is successful, how will Boeing sell it to the US? Based on “commercial” prices paid by Australia? (i.e., no cost data?) How will pricing be determined to recoup Boeing’s investment + risk, unless in an open environment of (sole-source) competition?
James Hasik’s interesting discussion on vertical integration. A slice: “Northrop was the winner-by-default in GBSD after Boeing rather loudly dropped out of the competition, asserting that Northrop’s vertical integration of Orbital ATK.” He argues that selective vertical integration of effort back into the govt could increase organizational capabilities. He was commenting on my post here.
The excellent Daniel Hulter: “the Department of Defense (DOD) is an ecosystem – a body of interrelated organisms that together comprise a larger, complex, adaptive, living system… Through trial and error, they can semi-intentionally stumble upon serendipitous connections and conceptual collisions, in order to discover and grow adaptive enhancements.” Complex adaptive systems is precisely how we should think of the DOD. My forthcoming book devotes a whole chapter to it.
Links to important DevSecOps documents.
Related: PMI, please get out of scrum. “According to the 2018 PMI Annual Report, $239 million USD were collected worldwide… The absence of a project manager role in Scrum also caused concern for the PMI. What are all the PMP’s going to do without project manager roles?”
USAF Pitch Bowl Planned for March. Not too informative, but here’s a slice: “…the bowl offers the next step: a path to greater research and development funding, the commercial market, and the Air Force’s inventory.” I provide more background on that here.
An F-16 Shot Down a Cruise Missile with a Rocket. Appears it was a simulated test. Hard part is targeting the cruise missile. Used the GR-20A Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System.
The evolution of product cost management tools. And here’s part two. “… the next wave: feature-based automated 3-D CAD costing tools, advanced cost-accounting and control systems; the role of little and big data; and the future of product cost management.” Important to reconcile costing with agile/rapid acquisition.
2020 NDAA creates biggest civilian pay raise in over a decade, and emphasizes increased civilian workforce training + authority.
Inside Palantir’s support for the Army’s massive data problem. Integrating 192 systems. Uses an OTA. Just recently Palantir became FedRAMP certified. We’ll see if Silicon Valley can handle an enterprise of this scale/complexity.
Article in favor of OTAs. An interesting quote: ‘Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy has likened the procurement system to baseball: “It’s like having a 19-year-old kid that can throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball but who won’t make the majors until he’s 39.'”
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