Improving the Enterprise Requirements and Acquisition Model's Developmental Test and Evaluation Process Fidelity

摘要

Shrinking budgets and dynamic military conflicts have driven Department of Defense (DoD) leadership to reform how the military acquires weapon systems with the goal of decreasing program schedules and costs, while maximizing performance. With fifty years of reform, the DoD has been unable to adequately control program schedule objectives. Previous research attempted to support acquisition reforms through modeling and simulation. The Enterprise Requirements and Acquisition Model (ERAM) captures a program's progression through the Defense Acquisition Management System to gain insight into significant delays that impact program schedule and probability of completion. A past unexpected result included the insignificant impact that Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) had to a program's overall schedule. This research improves this fidelity of the DT&E activities through data collections, subject matter expert feedback, modeling and simulation, and Monte Carlo analysis. Interventions included modifying the probability of passing the Test Readiness Review, System Verification Review, decreasing the maximum delay to a program's first test mission, improvements in Responsible Test Organization resource availability, test item quality, and test item quantity. Several interventions significantly reduced major programs schedule by 15% (21 months). The research demonstrates a methodology of quantitatively supporting acquisition reform interventions by characterizing DT&E activities and delays.