Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on DoD Acquisition: Research Design for an Empirical Study

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on DoD Acquisition: Research Design for an Empirical Study
Author: Jeffrey A. Drezner
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 0833039679

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics asked RAND to evaluate the cost of compliance with acquisition-related statutes and regulations at the program office level. This report identifies the areas considered most burdensome and describes the study's methodology, focus, and data collection process, including the development of a Web-based data collection tool for use by program office personnel.

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on DoD Acquisition: Research Design for an Empirical Study

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on DoD Acquisition: Research Design for an Empirical Study
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

Over the past two decades, multiple studies have attempted to estimate the cost to major weapon system programs of complying with acquisition-related statutes and regulations. Most studies investigated the cost of compliance only at the contractor level, though program offices, the Services, and OSD would also incur such costs. A majority of these studies defined compliance cost as the additional cost of doing business with DoD. Despite substantial research in this area, few studies based their findings on actual, measured costs. Instead, most based their results on anecdote rather than the systematic collection of empirical data. Compliance with statutes and regulations is imbedded in the working culture of the DoD organization. Personnel are taught to comply during their acquisition training, and they do not know another way of doing business. A two-star Program Executive Officer described the acquisition system as a sandbox that he knows and understands, and opined that it was not in his interest to spend what little time he had to manage his programs fighting to lower the height of the walls of that sandbox, even if that would make his and his staff's jobs easier. The high degree to which compliance is institutionalized in a culture and in a set of processes creates an inherent difficulty in quantifying the cost of that compliance. This research focuses on costs at the government program office level, primarily because it is program managers and their staff who complain that compliance with some statutes or regulations is burdensome, and that burden translates into adverse outcomes in terms of cost, schedule, and performance. One way of capturing actual costs at the government program office level is to track the actual labor hours spent by program office staff complying with a certain statute or regulation. Linking these compliance activities to program deliverables that are in the critical path shows their effect on cost and schedule outcomes.

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on Department of Defense Acquisition

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on Department of Defense Acquisition
Author: Jeffrey A. Drezner
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0833041762

Managers of weapon system acquisition programs and their staffs have often voiced concerns about the burden of complying with federal statutes or regulations requiring certain business and oversight processes. The essence of the concerns is that program offices spend an inordinate amount of time complying with statutes and regulations that add little value, and that the regulatory burden translates into cost increases, schedule delays, and adverse effects on system performance. While many other studies have addressed this topic, few have succeeded in generating the empirical evidence needed to inform the policy debate. To fill this gap, NDRI developed a Web-based data collection tool to capture the program staff's estimates of hours spent on compliance efforts. A total of 316 individuals in seven DoD program offices were recruited to use the web tool to estimate biweekly the time they spent on regulatory compliance-related activities over the course of a year. While statutes and regulations do place constraints on program execution, the study found that program office staffs do not appear to spend a significant amount of their time complying with those statutes and regulations. Further, there is little evidence that program office compliance activities have adverse consequences for program outcomes.

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on Department of Defense Acquisition. An Empirical Analysis

Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on Department of Defense Acquisition. An Empirical Analysis
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN:

Improving the defense acquisition process has been a recurring theme for several decades. Acquisition process reforms often require changes in the body of statutes and regulations governing the acquisition process. Prior research has observed a regulatory pendulum in which statutes and regulations seem to move back and forth from relative flexibility to relative rigidity in response to perceived problems in the acquisition process generally, or in specific weapon system programs. Increased flexibility enables program managers to tailor their program's acquisition strategy to the unique features of its environment and to reduce the costs of oversight. Rigidity in statutes and regulations mandates specific management approaches and oversight procedures.

The Army Lawyer

The Army Lawyer
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1086
Release: 2009
Genre: Courts-martial and courts of inquiry
ISBN:

Air Force Software Sustainment and Maintenance of Weapons Systems

Air Force Software Sustainment and Maintenance of Weapons Systems
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 101
Release: 2020-07-09
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309678153

Modern software engineering practices, pioneered by the commercial software community, have begun transforming Department of Defense (DoD) software development, integration processes, and deployment cycles. DoD must further adopt and adapt these practices across the full defense software life cycle - and this adoption has implications for software maintenance and software sustainment across the U.S. defense community. Air Force Software Sustainment and Maintenance of Weapons Systems evaluates the current state of software sustainment within the U.S. Air Force and recommends changes to the software sustainment enterprise. This report assesses how software that is embedded within weapon platforms is currently sustained within the U.S. Air Force; identifies the unique requirements of software sustainment; develops and recommends a software sustainment work breakdown structure; and identifies the necessary personnel skill sets and core competencies for software sustainment.

Systems Engineering in Context

Systems Engineering in Context
Author: Stephen Adams
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 716
Release: 2019-06-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030001148

This volume chronicles the 16th Annual Conference on System Engineering Research (CSER) held on May 8-9, 2018 at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. The CSER offers researchers in academia, industry, and government a common forum to present, discuss, and influence systems engineering research. It provides access to forward‐looking research from across the globe, by renowned academicians as well as perspectives from senior industry and government representatives. Co‐founded by the University of Southern California and Stevens Institute of Technology in 2003, CSER has become the preeminent event for researchers in systems engineering across the globe. Topics include though are not limited to the following: Systems in context: · Formative methods: requirements · Integration, deployment, assurance · Human Factors · Safety and Security Decisions/ Control & Design; Systems Modeling: · Optimization, Multiple Objectives, Synthesis · Risk and resiliency · Collaborative autonomy · Coordination and distributed decision-making Prediction: · Prescriptive modeling; state estimation · Stochastic approximation, stochastic optimization and control Integrative Data engineering: · Sensor Management · Design of Experiments

Market Research Center of Excellence - Defense Procurements and the DoD Acquisition Process, Military Purchasing, Gathering Information About Commercial Products and Services, Small Business

Market Research Center of Excellence - Defense Procurements and the DoD Acquisition Process, Military Purchasing, Gathering Information About Commercial Products and Services, Small Business
Author: U S Military
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 94
Release: 2019-06-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9781075580727

Market research is a critical step in the acquisition process and requires due diligence; however, in October 2014, the Government Accountability Office identified limitations in market research performed on Department of Defense (DoD) procurements. To address these limitations, the authors evaluated issues that DoD acquisition professionals face in completing market research. They reviewed current federal literature pertaining to market research and analyzed data received from a questionnaire sent to more than 75 contracting and acquisition personnel, ranging from GS-09 contract specialists to Senior Executive Service-level assistant secretaries of the Navy. Different tools for market research were analyzed and benefits of a command-level staffed Market Research Center of Excellence were explored. Finally, the authors presented seven recommendations to improve market research effectiveness.This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.Market research (MR) is the process of collecting and analyzing information, making a decision, and then documenting the results (PCADD), as defined in the Market Research Gathering Information About Commercial Products and Services (SD-5) published by the Defense Standardization Program Office. Additionally, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) devotes an entire chapter (Part 10) to MR, which "prescribes policies and procedures for conducting market research to arrive at the most suitable approach to acquiring, distributing, and supporting supplies and services" (FAR 10.000). It is based on statutory requirements found in 41 United States Code (USC) 3306(a)(1), 41 USC 3307, 10 USC 2377, and 6 USC 796. Obviously, MR is a critical step in the acquisition process and requires due diligence. However, in October 2014, the General Accounting Office (GAO) identified limitations in the MR performed on Department of Defense (DoD) procurements. This finding validated the work of Dr. Aruna Apte, Dr. Uday Apte and Dr. Rene Rendon of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in their 2010 article "Contracting for Services in the U.S. Army: An Empirical Study of Current Management Practices" published in the Journal of Contract Management. The article cited recent GAO and DoD Inspector General reports that "have shown that [DoD] has not conducted adequate market research during procurement planning of services contracts" (Apte, Apte & Rendon, 2010, p.10). Additionally, improving MR was a constant theme in the Better Buying Power (BBP) trilogy under the last presidential administration. Our team investigated current MR literature, MR training and MR practices, specifically including communicating with industry. Communicating with industry is embedded in four of the eight MR techniques prescribed in FAR Part 10 and communicating with industry is also one of the seven MR guiding principles prescribed in the SD-5, clearly illustrating that communicating with industry is a key element of the overall MR process. We also developed and issued a MR survey to contracting and acquisition personnel. Finally, based on our investigation and analysis we then developed requirements for a notional Market Research Center of Excellence (MaRCOE) to help DoD agencies and major buying commands improve MR.

Fundamental Research

Fundamental Research
Author: United States. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
Publisher:
Total Pages: 8
Release: 2011
Genre: Engineering and state
ISBN:

The Department ofDefense (DoD) fully supports free scientific exchanges and dissemination of research results to the maximum extent possible. Critical to enabling exchanges and dissemination is an understanding on the part ofDoD acquisition personnel and the research community ofthe statutes, regulations, and policies governing restrictions that apply to the DoD on basic and applied research, recognizing the necessarily open nature of unclassified fundamental research. Understanding will help guide DoD acquisition personnel and contract and grant recipients in making plans and decisions that will affect performance of research under DoD awards and implementing measures that may be needed to comply with appropriate controls.