Defense Acquistion Performance Assessment Executive Summary

In this book we introduce the basics of the federal budget process, provide an historical background on the foundation and development of the budget process, indicate how defense spending may be measured and how it impacts the economy, describe and analyze how Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES) operates and should function to produce the annual defense budget proposal to Congress, analyze the role of Congress in debating and deciding on defense appropriations and the politics of the budgetary process including the use of supplemental appropriations to fund national defense, analyze budget execution dynamics, identify the principal participants in the defense budget process in the Pentagon and military commands, assess federal and Department of Defense (DoD) financial management and business process challenges and issues, and describe the processes used to resource acquisition of defense war fighting assets, including reforms in acquisition and linkages between PPBES and the defense acquisition process.

Using a comparative framework, this volume presents case studies of issues of public procurement and discusses how procurement professionals and policy makers in different regions are responding to these challenges. This book discusses current issues in public procurement. Over the past few decades, public procurement has had to evolve conceptually and organizationally in the face of unrelenting budget constraints, government downsizing, public demand for increased transparency in public procurement, as well as greater concerns about efficiency, fairness and equity. Procurement professionals have also had to deal with a changeable climate produced by emerging technology, environmental concerns, and ongoing tension between complex regional trade agreements and national socioeconomic goals. The first section discusses innovation and reforms in public procurement and how practitioners are adapting to and making use of new technologies. The second section addresses the challenges of maintaining transparency, equity, and fairness in public procurement. The final section discusses preferential public procurement and introduces strategies for building sustainable public procurement systems. By combining theory and analysis with evidence from the real world, this book is of equal use to academics, policy makers, and procurement professionals.

The United States government invests billions each year on equipping armed forces with the most advanced military equipment. The root of the American defense acquisition system is driven by a combination of national interests and domestic political requirements. While fundamentally the defense acquisition system has produced results for the United States military, improvements are needed in order to continue to move forward in advancing military tactics and technology. Exploring both the systemic and political levels of the system, Sorenson argues that the United States will fall behind if the current defense acquisition system is not reformed. This book brings together elements of this complicated system, such as national security requirements, and the changes that are needed in both the structural and political pillars. A combination of political interests and the needs of the military, serviced by an ever-shrinking defense industry, make a genuine acquisition reform even more difficult, resulting in reform that is more symbolic than genuine.

An indispensable resource for all defense industry professionals—governmental and commercial! Introducing the only book on the market offering valuable best practices and lessons learned for U.S. military program management The U.S. Department of Defense and the related defense industry together form the largest and most powerful government and business entity in the world, developing some of the most expensive and complex major systems ever created. U. S. Military Program Management presents a detailed discussion, from a multi-functional view, of the ins and outs of U.S. military program management and offers recommendations for improving practices in the future. More than 15 leading experts present case studies, best practices, and lessons learned from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, from both the government and industry/contractor perspectives. This book addresses the key competencies of effective U.S. military program management in six comprehensive sections: • Requirements management • Program leadership and teamwork • Risk and financial management • Supply chain management and logistics • Contract management and procurement • Special topics

Managers of weapon system acquisition programs and their staffs have often voiced concerns about the burden of complying with federal statutes or regulations requiring certain business and oversight processes. The essence of the concerns is that program offices spend an inordinate amount of time complying with statutes and regulations that add little value, and that the regulatory burden translates into cost increases, schedule delays, and adverse effects on system performance. While many other studies have addressed this topic, few have succeeded in generating the empirical evidence needed to inform the policy debate. To fill this gap, NDRI developed a Web-based data collection tool to capture the program staff's estimates of hours spent on compliance efforts. A total of 316 individuals in seven DoD program offices were recruited to use the web tool to estimate biweekly the time they spent on regulatory compliance-related activities over the course of a year. While statutes and regulations do place constraints on program execution, the study found that program office staffs do not appear to spend a significant amount of their time complying with those statutes and regulations. Further, there is little evidence that program office compliance activities have adverse consequences for program outcomes.