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The paths become clearer: DoD acquisition policy and the Adaptive Acquisition Framework

The Honorable Ellen Lord, Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment), has repeatedly stressed that one of her office’s primary goals is to reform Defense acquisition so that it delivers capabilities at the speed of relevance to our Warfighters.

Since Dec. 31, Lord has approved the release of all six acquisition pathways that make up the Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF), DoD’s long-awaited rewrite of the Defense Acquisition directives commonly referred to as the “5000 series.”

Reforming this cumbersome set of documents has been a priority for Lord, who has been introducing the concepts to Congress, the defense industry, and the Defense Acquisition Workforce for several months.

“[The] way forward removes a longstanding system of bureaucracy and red tape by turning the procurement process into one that empowers users to be creative decision makers and problem solvers,” she wrote in a recent Defense Acquisition magazine article recently reprinted here by the Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech.

The revised 5000 series includes the introduction of the AAF, which gives acquisition professionals six different acquisition pathways: Urgent Capability Acquisition, Middle Tier of Acquisition, Major Capability Acquisition, Acquisition of Services, Defense Business Systems, and Interim Software Acquisition.

The final step of the release process involves an intricate transition that will occur when the Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 5000.02, “Operation of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework,” is released. This new version of the 5000.02 will cancel the current 5000.02, “Operation of the Defense Acquisition System.”

Because of differences in the two documents, functional policies applicable to engineering, test, cost, etc. will be nullified.  To mitigate the gap, DoDI 5000.02T (T stands for transition), “Operation of the Defense Acquisition System,” will be published to facilitate a smooth transition to AAF operations and will remain in effect until the completion of the AAF realignment.

Below are the policies that comprise the redesigned DoD 5000 series:

Defense acquisition professionals are advised to check DoD’s AAF website often for the latest policy updates.

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DoD’s proposals aim to simplify ‘mindboggling’ acquisition rules

The Defense Department has submitted seven legislative proposals to Capitol Hill to simplify its acquisition process.

But just don’t call them reforms, they are improvements, said Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

Kendall told the House Armed Services Committee on January 28, 2015 that reforms imply there is some big change, or some big initiative that can fix the acquisition system. But that is just not the case with these proposals.

“What we have to do is attack our problems on many fronts and make incremental progress on many fronts, learn from our experience and then adopt new things as we understand the impact of the things we’ve done,” Kendall said. “And that’s why we’ve emphasized a continuous process improvement approach in the Better Buying Initiatives over the last several years. I think that is the right approach. I think we will make incremental progress on a lot of fronts and in the aggregate, I think it will make a big difference.”

He said the incremental approach will let DoD, and Congress for that matter, improve upon many of the acquisition challenges the military faces.

“At the end of the day, a great deal of it is about not putting rules in place to constrain people, but getting people in a position where they can make better decisions and do the right thing, and then have the institutional support to execute the right thing and do it successfully,” Kendall said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/394/3790060/DoDs-proposals-aim-to-simplify-mindboggling-acquisition-rules

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DoD plots third chapter in Better Buying Power initiative

Nothing is on paper yet, but the Defense Department says it is in the very early stages of creating a “3.0” version of its ongoing Better Buying Power initiative.

The newest edition will focus on making sure the military doesn’t fall behind in technological superiority.

Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the next edition of the Pentagon’s effort to improve its acquisition system will zero in on an issue that he has become increasingly worried about as sequestration-level budgets take a toll on DoD’s investments in research and development.

While he emphasized that Better Buying Power 3.0 still is in the idea stage, he said it will revolve around the notion that DoD can’t afford to put technology advances on hold just because research dollars are shrinking.

“The first iteration was about the rules. The second one was about creating tools to help people think and do a better job of setting up business deals and executing them. The third is probably going to be about innovation and how we move things more rapidly and more effectively into the hands of warfighters,” he said Tuesday (Apr. 8, 2014) at the 15th annual Science and Engineering Technology Conference sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association in College Park, Md.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/65/3599360/DoD-plots-third-chapter-in-Better-Buying-Power-initiative- 

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Interview with Frank Kendall, DoD’s AT&L chief

Frank Kendall, US undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics (AT&L), oversees hundreds of billions of dollars in procurement programs. But that has not stopped him from taking on some side projects. He recently rewrote the Pentagon’s acquisition bible, known as Defense Department Instruction 5000.02. The new guidance implements “Better Buying Power” initiatives developed by Kendall and his predecessor, Ashton Carter.

Q. Can you talk about the update to DoD 5000.02?

A. I found a couple of gaps that I thought we needed to close that were fairly significant. Also, there were a number of laws that had been passed that needed to be implemented into the [Department of Defense Instruction] somehow. And we had done some things under Better Buying Power that I thought needed to be reinforced through 5000.02.

The gaps have to do largely with the need for a requirements decision point during what is the risk-reduction phase, the technology demonstration phase. Essentially, what we were doing is writing a draft requirements document when we first came through before Milestone A. That Milestone A kicks off a number of risk-reduction activities with industry, usually competitively. Then we were setting up Milestone B, the entry into full-scale development, after the preliminary design review. But nowhere in between was there a place to finalize the requirements. So we added a new decision point, which I’ll participate in for major programs, but it’s largely a Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Joint Staff, service, requirements community decision.

Keep reading this interview at: http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140108/DEFREG02/301080018/Interview-Frank-Kendall-US-Defense-Acquisition-Chief

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