risk management | The Contracting Education Academy

November 29, 2019 By cs

Supply chain security requires acquisition reform, security experts say

To secure the government’s IT ecosystem, agencies must better understand their tech, the vendors who built it, and those companies’ suppliers.

The government can make significant progress in securing its IT supply chain by following a few basic procurement practices, but most agencies have yet to adopt them, according to federal security experts.

While government leaders have recently given a lot of attention to the supply chain security threats posed by foreign vendors, officials must devote equal energy to reforming their acquisition policies so they put those warnings to good use, experts said. Those efforts require an in-depth understanding of both the government’s IT infrastructure and the countless firms in its vendor pool, they said, but today that remains a challenge for most agencies.

“Supply chain [security] is where we were with cyber[security] maybe 15, 20 years ago,” Michele Iversen, director of risk assessment and operational integration at the Defense Department, said during a panel at the recent Fifth Domain’s CyberCon event. “We really don’t really have the visibility that we need to know where the threats are and what’s actually happening.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/11/supply-chain-security-requires-acquisition-reform-security-experts-say/161251/

October 31, 2018 By AMK

DHS to use federal procurement to further reduce risks to the supply chain

The Homeland Security Department’s initiatives over the past year to address supply chain risks aren’t even close to hitting a crescendo. But the pace and volume of the drumbeat is distinctly mounting.

If the efforts to ban Kaspersky Lab, ZTE and Huawei products were just the prelude to the symphony, then the National Risk Management Center’s initial sprint topics, the business due diligence request for information and the latest effort to use the power of federal procurement are the opening sonata.

“There is a growing awareness and understanding to this issue. Our biggest challenge today is not having a national strategy around it while other countries do,” said Jennifer Bisceglie, president and CEO of Interos Solutions, which provides risk assessment services. “Until we have a national strategy, you will have pop up policies or programs or studies, like the one from MITRE. The time is beyond here to have a national strategy.”

The White House’s National Cyber Strategy gave a brief mention to supply chain risk management, saying the government should “improve awareness of supply chain threats and reduce duplicative supply chain activities within the United States government, including by creating a supply chain risk assessment shared service.” But it offered no specific details or initiatives.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2018/10/dhs-to-use-federal-procurement-to-further-reduce-risks-to-the-supply-chain/

August 29, 2017 By AMK

Pentagon acquisition reorg is all about ending culture of fear of failure

For the Defense Department to recapture its broad technological advantage over the rest of the world, it can’t be afraid to fail once in a while.

Under that specific direction from Congress, the Pentagon detailed a plan to shake-up its Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) office in the Office of Secretary of Defense with two main goals in mind: Accelerate the development and acquisition of cutting edge technology, and change the mindset of those buying, developing and managing technology.

To that end, DoD announced it will create a new Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)) and a new Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)) and offered its first detailed description of how it plans to use the newly-created position of chief management officer.

“In order to deliver new and needed capability to the warfighter, USD(R&E) will take risks while pushing the technology ‘envelope,’ testing and experimenting and being willing and allowed to fail when appropriate,” the report stated. “Once technological and integrated solutions have been identified and matured, USD(A&S) will minimize further risk, as necessary to ensure the needed capability is delivered and sustained in the most timely and cost-effective manner possible. The fact that the two organizations most integral to the delivery of effective and sustainable systems and services approach risk from such different perspectives reinforces special challenges.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2017/08/pentagon-acquisition-reorg-is-all-about-end-culture-of-fear-of-failure/

March 31, 2015 By AMK

House committee unveils DoD procurement reform bill

The House Armed Services Committee released a highly anticipated bill that is meant to streamline the Defense Department’s acquisition process and better train it’s procurement officers.

The legislation would focus on four areas of the acquisition process: workforce training, chain of command, streamlining reporting requirements and overall acquisition strategy.

“More than being monetarily wasteful, dysfunction in the acquisition process is sapping America’s technological edge and robbing our military of agility in the face of multiplying threats,” says Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) in a joint statement with committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.).

Thornberry went on to say the DoD’s acquisition system is slow and cumbersome and that it delivers “vital equipment years late that underperforms and is difficult and costly to maintain.”

The legislation (H.R.1597) would require procurement officers to be trained in the commercial market to close the knowledge gap between government and industry. It would also require ethics training specifically aimed at the acquisition process.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/hasc-unveils-dod-procurement-reform-bill/2015-03-30

Also see: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2015/03/house-defense-acquisition-reform-plan-seen-step-right-direction/108655/

July 3, 2014 By AMK

4 lessons for government leaders on what motivates contractors

Competition was the main theme of the Defense Department’s second annual report on acquisition performance, released earlier this month. Declining budgets may be pushing defense contractors to look for work outside the government, but the Pentagon’s emphasis remains on promoting competition, according to Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

The report analyzed contractors’ cost and schedule performance over more than a decade to see what motivated them to produce better results. Here are some takeaways:

The carrot-and-stick approach works.
Fixed-price isn’t always the best fix.
More competition does mean better performance.
Leadership matters, but it’s not clear how much.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/what-motivates-defense-contractors-four-lessons-for-government-leaders/2014/06/27/a623fb06-f577-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

To secure the government’s IT ecosystem, agencies must better understand their tech, the vendors who built it, and those companies’ suppliers.

The Homeland Security Department’s initiatives over the past year to address supply chain risks aren’t even close to hitting a crescendo. But the pace and volume of the drumbeat is distinctly mounting.

For the Defense Department to recapture its broad technological advantage over the rest of the world, it can’t be afraid to fail once in a while.

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