Imperatives for T&E Change Must Come from Within

Abstract

The demands for change in test and evaluation (T&E) occurring right now are significant. And, the future for T&E will emerge to be quite different than previously predicted. Why? Consider these significant examples: (1) the systems acquisition and associated T&E process has changed during wartime and is unlikely to return to the traditional process when the war is over; (2) business transformation demands more efficiency in T&E processes now; and (3) networked testing requires the testers to rely on each other as opposed to staying in traditional Service, local test range, or developmental test (DT)/operational test (OT) domains. How, then, do we execute our primary mission as the urgency to rapidly field solutions for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to grow? T&E information has, for decades, provided the necessary information that milestone decision authorities need to determine which weapons systems get fielded when, and to whom. This is still true, but in the Army the traditional customer base (the Program Managers [PMs]/Program Executive Offices [PEOs]) is shifting to include direct requests from users in the theater of war. To respond to these theater requests, the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) has established a Forward Operational Assessment (FOA) team in Iraq comprising military operational testers and civilian developmental testers. Now on its fifth rotation, the subject matter expertise resident in this team is able to directly relay materiel needs from the fight to the test ranges. Further, this team has the ability to conduct limited testing in theater, which is augmented by more extensive stateside T&E. In the Army, the newest efficiency and quality program is Lean 6 Sigma. It is a mandatory endeavor for every Army major command. Full cost visibility and employment of business approaches to T&E have been recurring themes from Congress and OSD for years. The demand to identify and reduce costs is here to stay.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA519789

Entities

People

  • Brian M. Simmons

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Army
  • Base Closures
  • Commerce
  • Developmental Tests
  • Efficiency
  • Employment
  • Executives
  • Field Tests
  • Logistics Support
  • National Security
  • Standards
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities
  • Test Methods
  • Universities
  • War Colleges

Readers

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  • Systems Analysis and Design