There's widespread opinion today that the traditional defense acquisition process is cumbersome and outdated. The last 10 years have seen a large number of programs bypass the traditional acquisition process in order to rapidly deploy systems in support of combat operations which also allowed for immediate field-testing and feedback.
The appeal of this immediacy has resulted in increased pressure on today's acquisition professionals and program managers to deliver new technology and sophisticated solutions, in shorter timeframes with drastically constrained budgets.
In Smart Decisions: A Multidimensional Approach to Managing Complexity and Risk in Defense Acquisition and Logistics, Booz Allen offers its perspective on how program managers can succeed within the current acquisition system by following smart decision-making. Smart decisions are those informed by cost and risk issues and supported by data analytics while looking at all of the program variables together. It's broken down into three central principles: