SOCOM Software Personnel Head for Exits.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: UP FRONT

* A cultural change in the way Special Operations Command acquires software resulted in 95 percent of the personnel in one program executive office leaving the job.

The traditional means of military acquisitions: requirements, development, then procurement, doesn't work when it comes to software, Army Col. Paul Weizer, PEO for SOF digital applications, said at NDIA's SO/LIC conference. "That is not how software works. And it will not work that way," he said. The military must be more agile.

He and SOCOM Acquisition Chief James Smith introduced a more "non-linear" way of acquiring software when the PEO was stood up in the summer. By the...