Acquisition Management for Systems-of-systems: Exploratory Model Development and Experimentation

Abstract

In recent years, the Department of Defense (DoD) has placed a growing emphasis on the pursuit of agile capabilities via net-enabled operations. In this setting, systems are increasingly required to interoperate along several dimensions. Yet, the manner in which components of these system-of-systems (SoS) are acquired (designed, developed, tested and fielded) has not kept pace with the shifts in operational doctrine. Acquisition programs have struggled with complexities in both program management and engineering design. We have developed a conceptual model for pre-acquisition and acquisition strategy in an SoS environment and have implemented it in an exploratory, dynamic model. The model allows acquisition professionals to develop intuition for procuring and deploying system-of-systems by providing a venue for experimentation through which they can develop insights that will underpin successful acquisition of SoS-oriented defense capabilities. This paper presents example studies that demonstrate the capabilities of the dynamic model and highlight the importance of project characteristics. Specifically, we investigate the impact of SoS attributes requirement interdependency, project risk, and span-of-control of SoS managers and engineers on the completion time of SoS projects.