Spiral Development: A Perspective

Abstract

Many view the Department of Defense's acquisition process as ripe for repair. Shortcomings of predominantly used acquisition approaches, such as the Block approach or Pre-planned Product Improvement (P3I) to fulfill system requirements, have led to a new approach in Evolutionary Acquisition strategy: a process called spiral development. This research study focuses on the process, promise, and limitations of spiral development. This study is centered on the key issues that distinguish a spiral approach from the traditional approaches implemented by the DoD. This study describes the fundamentals of the process of spiral acquisition: increments, characteristics of the increments, and the capabilities they deliver using a simple model. The interest of this research is in understanding the concept of spiral acquisition as it applies, specifically, to Program Managers. In conclusion, the analysis so far suggests two key issues: the necessity for a template or a set of rules that will aid Program Managers in understanding and implementing the concept of spiral development, and the role of modularity in spiral development. This research plans to address these issues and provide a possible road map towards a solution to them.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 30, 2005
Accession Number
ADA444078

Entities

People

  • Aruna Apta

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Business Administration
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Contracts
  • Control Systems
  • Lessons Learned
  • Littoral Combat Ships
  • Logistics
  • Management Personnel
  • Mathematical Models
  • Military Acquisition
  • Operations Research
  • Organizational Structure
  • Public Policy
  • Shipbuilding

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.
  • Systems Analysis and Design