From amorphous to defined: balancing risks in evolutionary acquisition
Abstract
Incremental development entails the deliberate deferral of
work to a subsequent period, using technology maturity as the
measure of readiness. This article illustrates that this approach
might enable more effective delivery of the first increment
with a comparison of two major systems as case studies. But
there are some inherent risks in an evolutionary approach
as well, and the authors caution that certain attributes of
hardware products might help determine the suitability of
evolutionary development methodologies. Mutable products
with costless production, continuous requirements, low
maintenance, or time criticality may be more likely to reap
advantages from evolutionary approaches. Products that are
nearly immutable, have binary requirements for key capabilities,
require man-rating, or are maintenance-intensive may
not be best candidates for incremental development.
Description
A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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