Collaboration practices: an analysis within an Army acquisition program office

Abstract

This project focuses on the complexity of stakeholder collaboration within the defense acquisition environment. An Army program office was identified as a case study because of a recently approved acquisition strategy by the Army Acquisition Executive. In coordination with this program office, eight key stakeholders were identified as being closely involved with the successful strategy decision. These individuals were given a survey to measure their collaborative capacity. Then, the participants were interviewed and asked to explain the impact and role that collaboration played in successfully constructing and staffing the acquisition strategy. Analyses revealed how effective collaboration was critical to achieving the successful high-level acquisition decision and revealed how the collaborative relationships changed over the events leading to the decision. The research concluded that developing and fostering effective collaboration with the stakeholder community contributes immensely to the success of the acquisition strategy and that the changing collaborative relationships can and should be supported with different levels of information.