The development of accurate and meaningful metrics was challenging. It was often difficult to connect goals with statistics that were easily collected and calculated, especially if the goal was unclear and subjective, or if it involved improving a process. Furthermore, the complexity and varied nature of acquisition programs made it difficult to find standard metrics for them. Ideally, metrics would be tailored for each program to be meaningful. Yet how would DoD devise metrics at the enterprise level—that is, giving trends for the entire acquisition system—when the “subordinate metrics” varied from program to program and from activity to activity? Finally, the metrics had to measure the progress of a program or initiative while it was still under way, which was far more difficult to do than analyzing the results after the fact. One could never be quite certain that a measurement of progress was in fact showing any progress.
That was Henry Jehan Jr., “Army Acquisition Management: A Quest for Excellence or a Tilting of Windmills?”
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