Defense Acquisitions: DoD's Revised Policy Emphasizes Best Practices, But More Controls are Needed

Abstract

DOD's new policy supports knowledge-based, evolutionary acquisitions by adopting lessons learned from successful commercial companies. One of those lessons is a knowledge-based approach, which requires program managers to attain the right knowledge at critical junctures - also known as knowledge points - so they can make informed investment decisions throughout the acquisition process. The policy also embraces an evolutionary or phased development approach, which sets up a more manageable environment for attaining knowledge. The customer may not get the ultimate capability right away, but the product is available sooner and at a lower cost. Leading firms have used these approaches - which form the backbone of what GAO calls the best practices model - to determine whether a project can be accomplished with the time and money available and to reduce risks before moving a product to the next stage of development.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2003
Accession Number
AD1163978

Entities

People

  • Adam Vodraska
  • Chris Deperro
  • Katherine V. Schinasi
  • Lily Chin
  • Matt Lea
  • Mike Sullivan

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Best Practices
  • Business Administration
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Engineering
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Governments
  • Health Care
  • Law
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • Procurement
  • Product Development
  • Reliability
  • Spiral Development
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Weapon Systems
  • Websites

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design