Will Empowerment of USAF Program Managers Mitigate the Acquisitions Crisis

Abstract

For decades, the Defense Acquisition System has been criticized for its inability to provide timely and cost effective products. Significant cost overruns in programs have created tension between the DoD and Congress, especially when it comes to continued program or new program funding. This thesis will look at the idea of empowering USAF program managers as a mitigation strategy to help decrease overall program costs. Empowerment is shown to work with private industry in reducing costs. This thesis will look at the feasibility, acceptability, and suitability of implementing these same empowerment methods within the USAF. A review of government reports and documents concerning the status of acquisitions along with a top-level review of empowerment provide the data pool for examination. The use of qualitative review software provided the data analysis processing to quantify the data into meaningful categories for review. Data review showed empowerment was a feasible method for mitigating the acquisition crisis; however, current methods would be unacceptable without significant changes to current acquisition processes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 10, 2016
Accession Number
AD1020410

Entities

People

  • Matthew J. Van Gilder

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Programs
  • Congress
  • Cost Overruns
  • Costs
  • Data Analysis
  • Delphi Method
  • Governments
  • Intellectual Property
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Acquisition
  • Operations Management
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Procurement
  • Public Administration

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).
  • Systems Analysis and Design