Aug 29
2011
By Bill Novak, Senior Member of the Technical Staff,
SEI Acquisition Support Program, Air Force Team
This is the fourth in an ongoing series examining themes across acquisition programs.
Background: Over the past decade, the U.S. Air Force has asked the SEI’s Acquisition Support Program (ASP)
to conduct a number of Independent Technical Assessments (ITAs) on
acquisition programs related to the development of IT systems;
communications, command and control; avionics; and electronic warfare
systems. This blog posting is the latest installment in a series that
explores common themes across acquisition programs that we identified as
a result of our ITA work. Previous themes explored in this series
include Misaligned Incentives, The Need to Sell the Program, and The Evolution of “Science Projects.”
This post explores the fourth theme: common infrastructure and joint
programs, which describes a key issue that arises when multiple
organizations attempt to cooperate in the development of a single
system, infrastructure, or capability that will be used and shared by
all parties.
Read more...
Jul 11
2011
By Bill Novak, Senior Member of the Technical Staff,
SEI Acquisition Support Program, Air Force Team
Background: Over the past decade, the U.S. Air Force has asked the SEI’s Acquisition Support Program (ASP)
to conduct a number of Independent Technical Assessments (ITAs) on
acquisition programs related to the development of IT systems,
communications, command and control, avionics, and electronic warfare
systems. This blog post is the third in a series that enumerates common
themes across acquisition programs that we identified as a result of our
ITA work. Other themes explored in this series include misaligned incentives, the need to sell the program,
and common infrastructure and joint programs. This post explores the
third theme in this series, the evolution of “science projects,” which
describes how prototype projects that unexpectedly grow in size and
scope during development often have difficulty transitioning into a
formal acquisition program.
Read more...
Jun 6
2011
By Bill Novak, Senior Member of the Technical Staff,
SEI Acquisition Support Program, Air Force Team
Background:
The U.S. Air Force has sponsored a number of SEI Independent Technical
Assessments (ITAs) on acquisition programs that operated between 2006
and 2009. The programs focused on the development of IT systems,
communications, command and control, avionics, and electronic warfare
systems. This blog post is the second in a series that identifies four
themes across acquisition programs that the SEI identified as a result
of our ITA work. Other themes explored in the series include misaligned incentives,
the evolution of science projects, and common infrastructure and joint
programs. This post explores a related second theme, the need to sell
the program, which describes a situation in which people involved with
acquisition programs have strong incentives to “sell” those programs to
their management, sponsors, and other stakeholders so that they can
obtain funding, get them off the ground, and keep them sold.
Read more...
May 16
2011
By Bill Novak, Senior Member of the Technical Staff,
SEI Acquisition Support Program, Air Force Team
Background:
Over the past decade, the U.S. Air Force has asked the SEI’s
Acquisition Support Program (ASP) to conduct a number of Independent
Technical Assessments (ITAs) on acquisition programs related to the
development of IT systems; communications, command and control;
avionics; and electronic warfare systems. This blog post is the first in
a series that identifies common themes across acquisition programs that
we identified as a result of our ITA work. This post explores the first
theme: misaligned incentives, which occur when different individuals,
groups, or divisions are rewarded for behaviors that conflict with a
common organizational goal.
Read more...
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