Aesop’s guide to Acquisition Laws
The following is a sample from John Krieger’s excellent article in NCMA Magazine. There’s more at the link. I’ll forgo the indentation in the quotes […]
Management
Are we at a crisis point in acquisition reform?
Francis Rose: Every uniformed official that I ever hear anything from talks about speed… When there’s legislative language that proposes exactly the opposite, is working […]
How to attract and retain the defense STEM workforce
In lieu of better data, it is easy to conclude that the defense enterprise struggles to recruit and retain STEM talent because it does not […]
Why cost accounting does not guarantee efficiency
But accurate accounts will not guarantee efficiency. Even if — as is unlikely to be the case [Sourwine 1993; 1994]– the service supplier’s financial and […]
Roper on opportunity- vs. requirements-based contracting
Here’s Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper making a very nice distinction between a “requirements” and an “opportunity” approach to defense programs. At the Strategic […]
Why I push back on the “colorless” appropriation for software
One of the hot topics in defense reform is the new Budget Activity 6.8 (or just 8), a “colorless” appropriation for Software and Digital Technology […]
The DoD acquisition is deterministic — it needs an overhaul
One of the things that the Department has an issue with is putting something out there really fast and really bad just because we need […]
What ever happened to the DoD’s Better Buying Power?
Here is Steve Grundman discussing Ash Carter’s Better Buying Power rollout: “… the term incentives is this campaign’s refrain, appearing 13 times in the document […]
There’s no “value” in Earned Value Management
The problem here is that EVM is based on a detailed and accurate “plan” at the start of the initiative. And Agile avoids that detailed […]
Air Force contracting chief talks budget reform, Covid-19, and great power competition
This applies to Covid, it applies to emergencies and to great power competition: We have got to figure out a way to let Congress oversee […]
Kill chains vs. kill webs
Software-defined tactics are the key to quickly adding capabilities to different assets that are supposed to work together. It’s kill chain vs kill web for […]
There is no spoon: A look into Will Roper’s new digital acquisition reality
As background, we’re all aware U.S. military aviation has been collapsing for nearly 40 years. In the 1950s, over a dozen companies built spiraling supersonic […]
An innovation culture maximizes variation, a manufacturing culture decreases it
Most companies over-optimize for efficiency. They want to get so good at their current market that they lose flexibility to adjust to the future. And […]
New defense policy released for Software Acquisition Pathway – DoDI 5000.87
Programs executing the software acquisition pathway are not subject to the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS), and will be handled as specifically provided […]
Why are analysts complicit in cost and schedule growth?
I showed that for 10 projects for which a cost risk analysis had been conducted, the actual cost was greater than the 90th percentile for […]