Acquisition Management for Systems-of-Systems: Affordability through Effective Portfolio Management

Abstract

Promoting affordability and a "Should Cost" policy in defense acquisitions involves a series of decision epochs that lead up to end procurement of a desired sustainable capability. Often times the number of decision variables, coupled with programmatic uncertainties, leads to a decision problem that can quickly exceed the mental faculties of the decision-maker. Yet these decision problems, especially early on, directly impact cost, schedule and performance in subsequent decision-epochs. Our research under this grant leverages techniques from the fields of operations research towards improving multi-period decision-making in defense acquisitions. Our work extends prior developed portfolio tools to include a framework that can handle complex interdependencies between technical and programmatic dimensions of acquisitions, bearing multi-epoch consideration in mind. We provide representative case study analyses to illustrate application of methods in identifying optimal acquisition strategies and investment policies.