COMMENTARY
DONE THAT BEEN THERE,
WHO IS THE CUSTOMER?
For non-acquisition professionals, it’s unfathomable that acquisition professionals find this dif ficult to answer.
by Robert F. Mortlock, Ph.D., Col., USA (Ret.) R
eally, are you serious? Many might automat- ically jump to provide the easy and obvious answer: the warfighter. Te warfighter is the ultimate customer, meaning the beneficiary,
of most defense acquisition efforts.
Tis is not debatable; however, this answer is naive and too simplistic to be useful. It fails to appreciate the complexities of navigating big “A” acquisition, which is composed of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, the resourcing system (planning, programming and budget- ing and execution), and a requirements process—in most cases through the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System.
Tis simple answer also fails to recognize the program manager’s triple constraint of balancing a program’s cost, schedule and performance baseline. Finally, it fails to acknowledge the complex acquisition environment consisting broadly of a set of key stakeholders includ- ing Congress, service leadership, industry partners, users
and the acquisition program chain of command. (See sidebar, "Big 'A' Acquistion: A Primer," Page 139.)
Te concept of “know your customer” or “understand your customer’s requirements” is fundamental to the success of any service industry. Defense acquisition is basically a service industry with the mission of provid- ing combat capability to the warfighter. Implied within this mission is that defense acquisition can define its customer. If acquisition programs can’t define their customer more specifically than “the warfighter,” then how could they efficiently and effectively succeed in their mission?
According to “The Defense Acquisition System,” Department of Defense Directive 5000.01, the acqui- sition system provides “effective, affordable, and timely systems to the users” with the “primary objec- tive of defense acquisition to acquire quality products that satisfy user needs with measurable improvements to mission capability and operational support, in a
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