Breaking down the info tech 'rice bowls'.

• Author: Kimmel, Steve
• Position: NDIA NEWS: ASSOCIATION BRIEFS

The Defense Department's directive 5000 series governs the defense acquisition process. Most recently updated last December, the policy instruction DoDI 5000.02 aims to simplify the management of acquisition programs that include weapon systems, services and automated information systems.

The question of whether the new directive provides overarching policy guidance to achieve both hardware and information-systems acquisition and testing was the topic of a January symposium sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Division.

The overarching question was whether information systems are inherently different than hardware platform acquisitions and thus require similar but different test approaches.

Participants stressed that the Defense Department's "rice bowls" need to learn to work together harmoniously. Each organization that makes up the broad acquisition and testing communities fiercely protects its own turf and sometimes works against a common objective, according to Paul Ketrick, director of enterprise planning and investment for the Defense Business Transformation Agency.

Steven Hutchinson, test and evaluation...