6 pathways and 14 functional areas to make up new acquisition policy framework

A presentation by ASD(Acquisition) Kevin Fahey to the advisory board for George Mason’s Center for Government Contracting went into the details of the AAF and other subjects. Many are familiar with the Adaptive Acquisition Framework which consists of 6 pathways for programs. They include:

1. Urgent Capability Acquisition
2. Middle Tier of Acquisition
3. Major Capability Acquisition
4. *Interim* Software Acquisition
5. Defense Business Systems
6. Acquisition of Services

Here, I just want to share a slide he showed during the presentation, which is the first overview I’ve seen of all related policies. Many but not all were listed in the new 5000.02 AAF policy rewrite.

First, I’ll mention that multifunctional organizations like the government often gravitate to matrix organizations, where you have program managers whose responsibilities intersect with the managers of functional areas. An industrial firm might look something like this:

As for the defense acquisition process, program managers (e.g., KC-46, DDG-51, JLTV) will have 6 “tailored” pathways to choose from (which can be used in conjunction with one another), and will have 14 functional areas that will intersect their program pathways. Some of the functional areas are also career fields within a program manager’s office, such as systems engineering and cost estimation. Others are simply processes and requirements, like cybersecurity and Analysis of Alternatives. Most are a bit of both. For example, Intellectual Property is a new DoDI.

Here’s the chart:

Note that the DoDD 5000.01 outlines roles and responsibilities, such as for the program manager. 5000.02 is the operation of the acquisition process.