Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord, flanked by her top deputies, said today her team's work to re-write procurement policy over the past few years has resulted in "irreversible momentum." For months, Lord has been talking about how the Defense Department's notoriously cumbersome acquisition regulations, known as "DOD 5000," has been reworked into the new "Adaptive Acquisition Framework." Today, she said the new system, which eschews a one-size-fits-all approach in favor of tailored requirements for specific programs, would have a "long-lasting, positive impact across the department." The new framework aims to plug acquisition programs into six different pathways: urgent operational needs, Middle Tier Acquisition, major capability acquisition, software, defense business systems and services. Lord said DOD is considering adding another pathway for space programs. Different DOD acquisition executives have pursued reform in the past with mixed results. The Obama administration, for instance, established "Better Buying Power." Lord said past efforts represented "piecemeal reform." Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office continues to be concerned about DOD acquisition, stating in a June report that many major programs "have generally stabilized non-quantity-related cost growth and schedule growth but continue to proceed with limited knowledge and inconsistent software development approaches and cybersecurity practices." Stacy Cummings, Lord's principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for acquisition enablers, said the publication of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework "does not represent the end of an effort, but the beginning of an effort." A congressional staffer said it would be interesting to watch the Adaptive Acquisition Framework in the future, especially if President Trump does not win re-election in November. Lord's reform initiative is a "big idea" that needs time to play out, the staffer said.
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