History of Concurrency. The Controversy of Military Acquisition Program Schedule Compression

摘要

Although concurrency is well known among acquisition personnel because of the controversy surrounding its principle application--overlap of development and production--little documentation exists concerning the strategy's history or current implementation on Air Force acquisition programs. The researched conducted a literature review which researched the history of concurrent and crash programs from World War II to the issuance of the Packard Commission Report in June of this year. This thesis focused on the management principles which were applied on concurrent acquisition programs. The researcher also interviewed twenty managers assigned to Air Force Systems Command's Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD), who were involved in concurrent programs. The interviews focused on the effects of concurrent weapon system acquisition, and the manager's personal opinions concerning the strategy. The results of the literature review indicate that the meaning of concurrency has degraded from a specialized management approach applicable to only the highest priority weapon system acquisitions, to a generic phrase indicating only overlap of development and production phases.