Defense Acquisition Best Practices: The Knowledge-Based Approach
Abstract
Over the last decade, several response plans and methods have been established to reduce schedule and budget overruns in the Department of Defenses (DOD) procurement programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) chose to revisit this issue in a recent study. They discovered that leveraging mature technology, having complete product designs, and having control over manufacturing processes were key to the successful development of new products. The GAO merged these principles into a single acquisition strategy known as the Knowledge-Based Approach (KBA). They assert that Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP) that implement the KBA principles will have better program outcomes. The purpose of this research is to determine if MDAPs that meet the three basic KBA criteria outperform those that do not. MDAPs that adhered to KBA knowledge points were predicted to have lower percentages of schedule and budget overruns than those that did not. This thesis demonstrated a clear link between the KBA and program performance by using inferential testing to compare the KBA to the most recent MDAPs, thus validating the GAOs approach, validating the research hypothesis, and promoting wider adoption of the KBA within the DODs acquisition community.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1173331
Entities
People
- Charles D Heard
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School