program achieves reliability thresholds as outlined in DODI 5000.02.
CONCLUSION Hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes. In retrospect, I would have applied the four best practices described here—tech- nology readiness assessment, manufac- turing readiness assessment, knowledge management and reliability growth—to my own program management during my Army career, if I had been aware of them at the time. Unfortunately they had not become part of the DOD acquisition community’s collective body of knowl- edge.
I can say now, though, that I would ad- vise any current or soon-to-be PM to use these best practices. Tey will put acqui- sition developmental programs on the right track for better outcomes.
For more information, go to the NPS Acquisition Research Program website at
http://www.acquisitionresearch.net/ page/view/home/.
MEGA PROJECTS, MEGA PROBLEMS
DOD has a bad habit of launching enormously complex projects that become both too big to fail and too big to succeed in anything approaching on-time, on-budget delivery, the author says. Some examples: the XM1203 Non-Line of Sight Cannon, which was part of the Army’s FCS program, canceled in 2009 after the Army had spent roughly $20 billion on it; the Joint Strike Fighter, only now approaching combat readiness 15 years after contract award and on track to cost nearly $1 trillion to maintain and operate over its lifetime; and the $13 billion Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carrier, which is two years behind schedule and has yet to consistently perform its most basic function, launching and retrieving aircraft. (Image by U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center)
Reliability Growth. Te OSD’s Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) and the Defense Science Board have clearly linked poor re- liability of warfighting systems to higher sustainment costs. Research by DOT&E and the Defense Science Board pinpoints reliability and maintainability as integral parts of the systems engineering process
that must be reported in connection with the systems engineering plan at milestone A, the decision point for the development RFP release, milestone B and milestone C. For Acquisition Category I programs, reliability growth curves showing the growth strategy must be part of the en- gineering plan and the test and evalua- tion master plan, to be tracked until the
MICHAEL W. BOUDREAU, COL., USA (RET.), was a senior lecturer at NPS from 1995 until his retirement from civil service in July 2016. While an active-duty Army officer, he was the project manager for the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles within the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support. He commanded the U.S. Army Materiel Support Command – Korea and the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant. Boudreau is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Defense Systems Management College and the Army Command and General Staff College. He holds an MBA and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Santa Clara University.
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