Performance Based Service Acquisition: A Quantitative Evaluation of Implementation Goals and Performance in the United States Air Force

摘要

In an attempt to maximize cost savings in the rapidly growing services sector, the DoD established a Performance Based Service Acquisition (PBSA) strategy that focuses on evaluating contractor performance based on their ability to meet desired outcomes rather than the means to which the outcomes are obtained. In April 2000, Dr. Gansler, then Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, mandated that 50 percent of all eligible service acquisitions be awarded using PBSA methods by FY 2005. Since then very little research has been focused on USAF implementation of PBSA and the progress and attainment of the PBSA goals. Using multiple years of data this thesis seeks to evaluate and analyze the current and expected future states of PBSA implementation in the USAF. A combination of descriptive statistics, forecasting, contingency tables, and regression were used to analyze the data, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for PBSA implementation improvements. The results conclude that the USAF is not meeting interim PBSA goals and will most likely fall short of the FY 2005 PBSA goal. These results suggest that the goals may not have been reasonable and that the USAF has hit a natural plateau in PBSA use.