Costs and Risks of Maturing Technologies, Traditional vs. Evolutionary Approaches
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Authors
Pennock, Michael
Rouse, Bill
Subjects
Evolutionary Acquisition (EA)
Evolutionary Acquisition
Evolutionary Acquisition
Advisors
Date of Issue
2008-04-01
Date
01-Apr-08
Publisher
Language
Abstract
Evolutionary acquisition holds the potential to improve both the cost of defense acquisition and the performance of acquired systems. Traditional acquisition programs tend to employ promising, yet immature, technologies and develop them within the program. Because immature technologies are inherently risky, unforeseen obstacles to development can lead to substantial cost overruns and schedule delays. This results in infrequent, but large, increments of deployed capability. In contrast, evolutionary acquisition employs more mature, less-risky technologies. This results in more frequent, smaller increments of deployed capability. In theory, evolutionary acquisition could be more cost effective than traditional acquisition approaches because it avoids most of the risk inherent to technology development. However, there is a latent issue regarding evolutionary acquisition. If technology is not matured within a program, it must be matured somewhere else. For critical, DoD-specific technologies, this cost must logically fall on the DoD itself. The question, then, is whether it is more cost effective to mature technologies within the R&D system or within an acquisition program? A simulation of the defense acquisition system is developed to address this question.
Type
Technical Report
Description
Proceedings Paper (for Acquisition Research Program)
Series/Report No
Department
Acquisition Management
Other Research Faculty
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
NPS-AM-08-029
Sponsors
Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.