DEFENSE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Adopting Best Practices Can Improve Innovation Investments and Management

Abstract

Why GAO Did This Study: DOD relies on innovative technologies to ensure the superiority of its weapon systems and planned to invest about $12.5 billion in fiscal year 2017 to achieve this aim. Recently, DODs leadership role in fostering innovation has been supplanted by the commercial sector. This has changed DODs approach to technology development by relying more on commercial innovation. Conference Report 112-329 included a provision for GAO to review DODs S and T enterprise. This report assesses (1) the practices leading companies employ to manage technology development and (2) the extent to which DOD can incorporate these practices into its own. GAO interviewed eight large, profitable, leading technology companies (Amazon, Dow Chemical, Honeywell, General Motors, IBM, Qualcomm, Siemens AG, and Valvoline) to identify practices they used to manage, prioritize, and assess their technology portfolios. GAO also met with DOD organizations that manage and execute S and T funds to identify their practices

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1036032

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Best Practices
  • Commerce
  • Computer Programming
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Disruptive Technology
  • Financial Management
  • Military Research
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Product Development
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Business

Readers

  • Economics
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting
  • Systems Analysis and Design