An Acquisition Leader's Model for Building Collaborative Capacity

Abstract

Abstract : This report begins by defining collaboration. Next, the report provides examples of how effective collaboration within the Department of Defense's (DoD) acquisition community is lacking. Based on these examples, the project asks its main research question: How can DoD acquisition leaders improve their collaborative capacity to improve cost, schedule and performance? Next, the project provides a model for how to do just that. The project, An Acquisition Leader's Model for Building Collaborative Capacity presents a three-step model. Step one is to assess and analyze collaboration capacity with regard to the elements of one's own organization, the organization's stakeholders, and the network (or the relationships between stakeholders). Next, based on the analyses from step one, step two calls for making plans to improve collaboration capacity, again, along the same elements previously analyzed: one's organization, stakeholders, and the network. Lastly, the model calls for executing the plans made in step 2. This process is repeated until the desired collaboration capacity has been reached. Last, the project provides a detailed hypothetical example of how the model can be applied.