New Report to Describe Incentives in Resourcing Processes.

• Date: 01 June 2021
• Author: Etherton, Jon,Winn, Jacob,Etherton, Jon^Winn, Jacob
• Published date: 01 June 2021
• Author: Etherton, Jon

The National Defense Industrial Association's 2014 report, "Pathway to Transformation: NDIA Acquisition Reform Recommendations," showed that past efforts to reform the acquisition process did not result in changes to the underlying structural resourcing forces that shape today's acquisition decisions.

Reform in defense acquisition historically examined major systems acquisition and tried to tackle the sources of schedule, cost and program performance challenges. Recent reform efforts prioritize faster capability development and delivery.

Unfortunately, these recent reform efforts underexamined the drivers of cost growth and poor program performance across the acquisition cycle, especially with respect to understanding the positive and negative incentives in the system driving undesirable outcomes. The acquisition reform conversation's limited scope prevents analysts, decision-makers and reformers from gaining a full picture of all factors contributing to disappointing defense acquisition outcomes.

The nation's budgeting and appropriations processes impose constraints and restraints on the acquisition system in ways that produce powerful incentives and disincentives for defense resourcing stakeholders. As such, there is a need for stakehold ers and analysts to step back and evaluate the programming, budgeting and execution components of processes and how they impact acquisition, with a particular focus on the positive and negative behaviors and externalities that resourcing processes produce.

To address this gap, NDIA is producing a report tentatively titled, "Stepping Back from Acquisition Reform: How Our Resourcing Processes Drive Defense Outcomes." It will focus on describing resourcing systems across Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department. It...