The world is accelerating into the future, but the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) requirements system is stuck in the past… This paper proposes a three-pronged approach to reforming the requirements process. First, the DoD should refine what it means by “requirements.” Defining enduring, enterprise-level requirements within major mission areas allows for management at the portfolio level, improving alignment across systems and enabling more flexibility and innovation at lower levels. Next, the DoD should establish an Adaptive Requirements Framework that parallels the new Adaptive Acquisition Framework and provides new pathways for generating and validating requirements. Finally, the DoD should rethink how programs progress through each of the new pathways.
That was from an excellent MITRE paper, “Modernizing DOD Requirements: Enabling Speed, Agility, and Innovation.” Here is a critical part for me in terms of enabling portfolio management:
… the requirements system must provide budgetary flexibility, since responding to changes generally influences how much money is needed. These budget changes may include increases or reductions in the amount of money required, as well as shifts in the timing for when the funds must be available.
A portfolio management approach is one way to help achieve this budgetary flexibility. It allows funding and requirements to seamlessly transfer between related programs within the portfolio.
All of this becomes easier if each effort adopts a modular approach to the overall program structure, including everything from design to contracting. Modular system architectures combined with modular contracting methods help increase the odds that the overall portfolio delivers systems that enable users to take full advantage of the latest technical developments
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