How to rejuvenate speed in the aerospace and defense sector
The global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry can produce astonishingly advanced airplanes and other complex equipment, but it routinely fails to develop those programs on time, on […]
agile development
We are literally suffocating from excess manning and excessive management
Giant-size administrative overheads in military industry seem to be an American specialty. The French designed and built the Mirage III with a total engineering staff […]
Podcast: Risk, Cost, and Project Management with Christian Smart
Christian Smart joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss his new book, Solving for Project Risk Management. He is the chief scientist at […]
Podcast: Digital acquisition with Bryon Kroger and Matt Nelson
Bryon Kroger and Matt Nelson joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about digital transformation in the Department of Defense. They are the […]
Podcast: SOFWERX, innovation, and early adoption with Tambrein Bates
Tambrein Bates joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss his role in helping build an ecosystem of over 40,000 innovators in support of […]
Podcast: Speed, thrift, and simplicity with Dan Ward
In this episode of Acquisition Talk, I speak with Dan Ward. He spent 20 years in the US Air Force, and has just released his […]
How should cost estimators respond to rapid acquisition?
As the Department of Defense keeps up the pressure on rapid acquisition, all functional areas are wondering how they can best support the policies. Cost […]
EVMS is not well suited to an Agile environment
Problem: DoD established use of EVM as a requirement for periodically measuring linear programs with firm baselines established prior to starting development. EVM is not […]
What is the “water-scrum-fall” method, and is it dangerous?
In a previous post, Nicholas Chaillan brought up the term water-agile-fall, or water-scum-fall. This is a situation where an organization that has traditionally worked with […]
Agile at scale, decoupling teams, and enterprise software in the DOD
One of the issues we see is programs trying going straight to the scaled agile development framework, like SAFe. We issued a memo highly discouraging […]
Podcast: Andrew Hunter on software-defined, hardware-based adaptable systems
Andrew Hunter, director of the defense-industrial group at CSIS, joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss a set of papers on adaptable systems, […]
William Roper is saying all the right things on defense innovation
What we really have to do in acquisition is shift the culture that is solely focused on the balance sheet — on cost — and […]
JIDO: a successful application of agile in defense acquisition
… this kind of goes to those mid-level warfighter programs that guys really need, programs like Joint Improvised Explosive Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), Task Force (Odin) […]