Making Acquisition Measurable

Abstract

The ultimate objective of our investigations was to establish a foundation for improving how acquisition performance is managed. Our project looked broadly across the four principles highlighted in NDAA Section 804 and subsequently focused on the challenges that program managers might face in measuring adoption and impact of the user engagement principle. We discovered that the principles are interrelated and that an understanding of how acquisition success will be measured is critical to understanding the principles contribution to successful acquisition outcomes. Our research focused most extensively on the challenges that Government program offices face in ensuring early and continual involvement of the user, measuring/monitoring user engagement in achieving program/system objectives, and determining the impact of user involvement. Based on direct interaction with users of Government systems and program capabilities, our research resulted in the identification of essential elements for an effective user engagement program, codification of key user types and characteristics, candidate high-priority user engagement metrics, lessons learned in deriving metrics, relevance of performance management principles for measuring user engagement, and insights from users for improving how program offices can more effectively and efficiently engage users in the process of delivering required capabilities.