BEHAVOIRAL ACQUISITION


FIGURE 1


However, investments in the education and training of these professionals often take a backseat to other higher priorities during annual funding drills in the plan- ning, programing and budgeting process. It is simply hard to justify an investment in education over funding an acquisition program that provides tangible products and services for warfighters—even though the return on investment in our people may be orders of magnitude better than the return on investment of an acquisi- tion program of record, prototyping effort or experiment.


Acquisition professionals are the most important asset in the defense acquisi- tion system. Tey protect the interests of the warfighter and increase combat effec- tiveness by leading acquisition efforts and making make wise decisions.


Acquisition professionals also “protect senior leaders from themselves” with independent, objective, fact-based, data- driven analysis and recommendations. To do this well, acquisition profession- als need education and training in all the fields of acquisition sciences (program management, contracting, engineering, test and evaluation, life cycle logistics, financial management and cost estimat- ing) along with a deep understanding of human behavior and organizational dynamics. Specifically, I have coined the phrase behavioral acquisition, which explores defense acquisition from a behav- ioral standpoint, including the impact of psychology, organizational behavior and politics. Behavioral acquisition studies the decisions made in DOD acquisition programs and helps better understand and predict how acquisition professionals and senior leaders think and make deci- sions about program strategy, managing resources and leading people. Behavioral acquisition is analogous to behavioral finance, which has successfully applied


142 Army AL&T Magazine Fall 2021


RESOURCE ALLOCATION R


A CONGRESS COST PM PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE ADAPTIVE


REQUIREMENTS GENERATION SYSTEM


INDUSTRY THE BIG “A” AND THE PEOPLE


U.S. defense acquisition can be viewed through the framework of a combination of the PM triple constraint, chain of authority, acquisition environment and decision-support templates. This perspective of big “A” acquisition highlights acquisition professionals—the people who affect this system that supports delivering warfighting capabilities. (Graphic courtesy of the author)


ACQUISITION FRAMEWORK


EXECUTIVE BRANCH


social science theories—especially from psychology—to improve the accuracy of predictions about personal financial decisions.


DECISION-MAKING IN DEFENSE ACQUISITION Given the complexity of the U.S. defense acquisition portfolio, better understanding how acquisition professionals, specifically program managers (PMs), make decisions


would prove valuable for improving defense acquisition outcomes.


Te PM is at the center of defense acquisi- tion and is responsible the triple constraint of cost, schedule and performance for assigned projects. Te PM has a hier- archical chain of command (or authority) through DOD in the executive branch. PMs report directly to a program execu- tive officer, who reports to the Army, Navy


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