Fewer Mistakes on the First Day: Architectural Strategies and Their Impacts on Acquisition Outcomes

Abstract

Reducing cost and development time, while preserving acceptable levels of performance, is a priority for all government-sponsored complex product development. One avenue for improving outcomes is to use architecting strategies to guide development decisions. Frequent examples are commonality, interoperability, modularity, flexibility, extensibility, robustness, openness, and adaptability. A second avenue for improving outcomes is better acquisition strategies. The two are often considered in isolation. This paper begins an examination of how the choice of architecting strategy affects the choice of acquisition strategy, and vice versa. As a first step, the paper synthesizes existing literature and provides straightforward definitions of each of the architecting strategies. As a second step, the paper maps each of the defined architecting strategies against two common axes of acquisition design, specifically openness to competition and sensitivity to requirements change. The conclusions, while tentative, show that increasing attention to the interaction between how systems are designed and how they are acquired may have a significant effect on the cost, schedule, and performance of complex product development.