Acquisition Strategy Formulation: Evolutionary/Incremental Development Approach

Abstract

This research fits in a new area of research called behavioral acquisition and studies the difficulty that acquisition professionals have in implementing the Department of Defense's preferred acquisition approach incremental development. The research surveys acquisition professionals for a recommended acquisition strategy for a typical acquisition program facing a milestone approval. This work provides insights into the importance of typical programmatic decision inputs (requirements, technology maturity, risk, urgency, and funding) to the formulation of an acquisition strategy. The research uses the Joint Common Missile (JCM) program and the subsequent Joint Air Ground Missile (JAGM) program as the basis. A questionnaire asks acquisition professionals to develop an acquisition strategy for the JCM program based on approved requirements, a technology risk assessment, and planned funding. The recommended strategies are compared to the actual strategy implemented in the JAGM program. The work highlights the importance of the Service affordability constraints in establishing the acquisition program's cost and schedule section of the acquisition program baseline. Once the program's cost and schedule parameters are planned, programmed, and budgeted, the program's only risk mitigation strategy is to delay desired capability to later increments. This research suggests that acquisition policy should mandate that programs of record establish firm targets for cost and schedule in development efforts, and allow the Services the ability to fit only what is affordable from a performance (requirements) perspective into the first increment of the program of record by delaying the achievement of some requirements to subsequent increments to allow more time for technology maturation. This work also questions the outdated concept of the program manager's (PM's) triple constraint of cost, schedule, and performance. The triple constraint unnecessarily ties the hands of the PMs and contributes to program failures in the form of schedule slips, cost over-runs, and no delivered capability. The recommended acquisition policy changes better optimize the implementation of incremental development strategies with the goal of making the defense acquisition system more responsive to the warfighter by fielding improved capability as quickly as possible and reducing risk to the eventual delivery of the full required capability.