Comments on: Donley and Schwartz on AF Acquisition http://www.dodbuzz.com/2008/07/22/donley-and-schwartz-on-af-acquisition/ Online Defense and Acquisition Journal Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:45:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Radarnavhttp://www.dodbuzz.com/2008/07/22/donley-and-schwartz-on-af-acquisition/comment-page-1/#comment-604 Radarnav Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:18:51 +0000 http://www.dodbuzz.com/?p=257#comment-604 The underlying issue is that the Acquisition Professionals and the Operators do not trust one another and are looking to cover their "Six" when issues arise, not to JOINTLY resolve program issues. No program exists that does not need trade-offs between Requirements/capabilities, cost, and, schedule.The lack of mid-level acquisition expertise is appalling. In the Space community, it is obvious that there is a serious "We-Thee" attitude between Operators and Acquirers. The lack of serious engineering and Program management experience/expertise is evident when program or contract plans or issues are driven to resolution by the contracting/legal community. The USAF lacks the "Iron Majors & Captains" that drove programs to success.In addition, the USAF has become so risk adverse that they are listening to the Lawyers and pushing away from Tier 1 Aerospace firms, that can supply the needed system engineering, and programmatic expertise, due to their extreme fear of OCI - THANK YOU Darlyn Dureen. The underlying issue is that the Acquisition Professionals and the Operators do not trust one another and are looking to cover their “Six” when issues arise, not to JOINTLY resolve program issues. No program exists that does not need trade-offs between Requirements/capabilities, cost, and, schedule.

The lack of mid-level acquisition expertise is appalling. In the Space community, it is obvious that there is a serious “We-Thee” attitude between Operators and Acquirers. The lack of serious engineering and Program management experience/expertise is evident when program or contract plans or issues are driven to resolution by the contracting/legal community. The USAF lacks the “Iron Majors & Captains” that drove programs to success.

In addition, the USAF has become so risk adverse that they are listening to the Lawyers and pushing away from Tier 1 Aerospace firms, that can supply the needed system engineering, and programmatic expertise, due to their extreme fear of OCI — THANK YOU Darlyn Dureen.

]]> By: LChttp://www.dodbuzz.com/2008/07/22/donley-and-schwartz-on-af-acquisition/comment-page-1/#comment-472 LC Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:04:09 +0000 http://www.dodbuzz.com/?p=257#comment-472 The biggest problem is the operators writing requirements do not have to go through nearly the amount of training acquisition professionals do; in fact, most can't even spell JCIDS.The acquisition program managers also need to start pushing back and getting the users to sign off on changes to the cost, schedule and performance baselines before they make any changes to the program. It's far too common for users to make changes and then blame the acquisition community when the system is not delivered on time and on budget.Get them to sign on the dotted line! The biggest problem is the operators writing requirements do not have to go through nearly the amount of training acquisition professionals do; in fact, most can’t even spell JCIDS.

The acquisition program managers also need to start pushing back and getting the users to sign off on changes to the cost, schedule and performance baselines before they make any changes to the program. It’s far too common for users to make changes and then blame the acquisition community when the system is not delivered on time and on budget.

Get them to sign on the dotted line!

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