1.1.2 Do It Right, Do It Early; Do It Early, Do It Right: Reshaping the DoD SE Investment Paradigm

Abstract

AbstractThe first standard deviation of a normal distribution curve overlaid on the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition life cycle “wall chart” generally aligns with Milestones (MS) / Key Decision Points (KDP) B and C, which bound the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. Taking this overlay to represent Systems Engineering (SE) effort supports the contention that, historically, the Services and their industry partners have done reasonably well in the practice and management of large amounts of post‐contract‐award SE. Much of this effort focuses on the fundamental activities of requirements decomposition and allocation needed for detail design to proceed.Analyses of DoD cost and schedule overruns have long pointed to optimistic technology maturation expectations and inadequately defined requirements as causal factors. It is almost axiomatic that process output quality directly reflects the suitability of input attributes. We suggest overlaying the near‐exponential “cost of change” curve on the above construct to support the case that early SE investment, focused on crafting and refining requirements, minimizes “churn” and rework in SDD. The objective is to have realistic, achievable requirements and technology paths at program launch, reducing the risk of breaching cost and schedule baselines.