Enabling Software Acquisition Improvement: Government and Industry Software Development Team Acquisition Model

Abstract

The growth, complexity, and reliance on software (SW) as part of the Department of Defense and Navy (DoD/Navy) warfare systems is continuing to increase. This increase in SW complexity and reliance has been accompanied by an increase in well documented SW intensive system acquisition cost, schedule and technical performance failures. The DoD/Navy is not consistently performing as a smart buyer of software intensive systems. The government and private industry have not been successful in applying the latest software methodologies and technologies nor consistently providing high quality and reliable systems that are delivered on schedule and within budget. The typical acquisition approach utilized over the past several decades of relying primarily on private industry for architecting, designing and implementing SW intensive systems has resulted in the loss of government in-house applied SW expertise necessary to achieve truly open architected systems and systems-of-systems. The key enablers for improving SW intensive system acquisition are the reconstitution and utilization of government in-house software subject matter experts (SMES) that can lead and work with industry SW engineers as part of an integrated SW Development Team.