Modernizing DoD Requirements: Enabling Speed, Agility, and Innovation

Abstract

The world is accelerating into the future, but the Department of Defense's (DoD's) requirements system is stuck in the past. The current approach to generating requirements is too slow to produce results when they matter most, too inflexible to account for an unpredictable environment, and too narrowly focused to satisfy joint warfighting needs across all domain operations. This paper proposes a three-pronged approach to reforming the requirements process. First, the DoD should refine what it means by "requirements." Defining enduring, enterprise-level requirements within major mission areas allows for management at the portfolio level, improving alignment across systems and enabling more flexibility and innovation at lower levels. Next, the DoD should establish an Adaptive Requirements Framework that parallels the new Adaptive Acquisition Framework and provides new pathways for generating and validating requirements. Finally, the DoD should rethink how programs progress through each of the new pathways.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1132111

Entities

People

  • Daniel R. Ward
  • Pete Modigliani
  • Tyler Lewis
  • Wayne Mcgee

Organizations

  • MITRE Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Application Software
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Procurement
  • Product Prototyping
  • Prototypes
  • Radio Equipment
  • Resilience
  • Security
  • Software Development
  • Software Prototyping
  • Standards
  • System Of Systems
  • Systems Engineering
  • Training
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Systems Analysis and Design