The fiscal 2011 Defense Department strategic management plan calls for the department to undertake a number of initiatives for reforming the acquisition process.

The plan, called "the highest-level plan for improving the DoD's business operations" in the introduction, is dated Dec. 30 and signed by Deputy Chief Management Officer Elizabeth McGrath. In it, Pentagon officials list 21 initiatives tied to objectives that fall under the heading of "Reforming DoD Acquisition and Support Processes."

Click here for a list of all acquisition and support processes management plan objectives correlated to performance measures and initiatives, duplicated from the report.

We've also re-ordered the list according to which DoD organization takes responsibility for the performance measure, sorted from the least to the most responsibility. In doing so, we found out that the DoD Chief Information Officer is responsible for only one performance measure: Tracking the percent of information technology and national security systems that have been certified and accredited.

The DCMO, however, takes the lead in tracking three performance measures tied to IT, primarily by following whether major automated information systems go above budget by 15 percent or more. The DCMO should also track the number of IT systems deployed within 18 months after business case approval, the plan says. The office of the undersecretary of acquisition, logistics and technology has responsibility for the most performance measures.

(Major Automated Information Systems, or MAIS, are DoD systems on which the department spends $32 million in any single fiscal year; or, cost $126 million from acquisition through deployment; or, cost $378 million across the entire lifecycle. All dollar numbers are in constant fiscal 2000 amounts.)

Among the initiatives listed in the report is a call for DoD competition advocates to develop a plan by Sept. 30 for raising the overall rate of competition.

When it comes specifically to initiatives for improving IT acquisition performance, the plan calls for more competitive prototyping, system procurement through "evolutionary acquisition," and implementation of the Business Capability Lifecycle to business applications. The plan also calls for IT systems to have a preliminary design review before Milestone B.

Reformation of acquisition and service support is one of five goals listed in the report. The others are "Support the All-Volunteer Force;" "Support Contingency Business Operations;" "Enhance the Civilian Workforce;" and, "Strengthen DoD Financial Management."

For more:
- download the fiscal 2011 DoD strategic management plan (.pdf)
- see a list of plan objectives, performance measures and initiatives tied to acquisition reform
- see that list re-ordered according to has primary responsibility for the performance measures

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