An auction trilemma?
These results imply an auction trilemma. Static, strategy-proof, or credible: An optimal auction can have any two of these properties, but not all three at […]
Blog Posts
General AI and the principle of optimism
With recent developments in our understanding of heuristic processes and their simulation by digital computers, the way is open to deal scientifically with ill-structured problems – to make the computer coextensive with the human mind.
The imperative of an acquisition theory
Conversations over several years tended to reinforce the impression that there was weak, but nonetheless real and expanding, disgruntlement with Defense Acquisition’s inability to provide an account of how it worked and a justification as to why…
Sunday Links
“We are going to invert that approach and take a clean sheet of paper and write the absolute bare minimum to be compliant in 5000.02, […]
Strategies for R&D contracting
Parenthetically we may note that CPFF contracts might be used more effectively than they have been in R&D work. Rather than concentrating on the final […]
Does the program manager matter?
If PMs indeed can have little influence over program outcomes, it is unreasonable to hold them fully accountable for those outcomes; however, this opposes NPM’s approach that has guided defense acquisition for more than two decades.
Podcast with Victor Deal on contracting and innovation
Victor Deal talks with me on the role of contracting, how the price of a screw can be worth the tank it goes on, the […]
Never underestimate the program budget’s impact
Never underestimate the impact of the program budget process.
How does equality of dignity stimulate innovation?
What I mean by bourgeois equality is equality before the law, that’s essential, but it’s not sufficient, because exactly as you say, you need equality […]
The role of the contracting officer
Thus, contracting authority is fragmented. The project officer is responsible for the success of the project, while the contract officer is the legal representative of […]
Sunday Links
The LCS modules, private contractors, Murphy’s Law in the Pentagon, Israel’s defense industry, Trumps executive order 12771, JEDI cloud, and the F-22.
Conditions for solving wicked problems
“Wicked problems” are problems that don’t just sit there and let you work on them. A tame problem is like an engineering problem or like […]
Single- vs. Multi-Function Systems
Here is Navy Matters on single vs. multi function system design: So many people want to cram every capability they can think of onto every […]
Views on the defense industrial report
First, were you aware that the Pentagon even had an Office of Defense Industrial Policy? It sounds suspiciously like the kind of government organization that engages in economic planning, a practice anathema not just to Republicans but to many Democrats as well.
Microsoft reaffirms support for DOD
Other tech industry executives pushed back against the idea that Silicon Valley workers are less inclined to work with the Defense Department solely because of cultural differences or qualms about the moral implications. “It’s much more an economics issue,” said Rachel Olney, “Dealing with the U.S. government is extremely time consuming.”