Mapping system capabilities to requirements and performance metrics for capabilities-based acquisitions: DoD applications

The rapid leap-frogging of technological advances and modernization of industrial processes tend to leave the military acquisition community in the dust. Traditional requirements-based acquisition methodologies do not allow decision-makers to totally grasp test results and clearly perceive whether the developer truly designed the system to match the actual operational requirements. Further, the final test reports do not accurately describe or reflect how the tested system or product measured up to its advertised or intended capabilities. The objective of this paper is to establish a relationship between the acquisition's requirements and performance metrics and the capabilities desired by the user, and to provide a mapping tool to allow the Decision Maker to easily understand what the new acquisition's capability level is. The scope of this paper will focus on the difficult area of test & evaluation and how to best present the testing evidence to the decision-makers so a well-founded decision can be made and the truly best systems and equipment are acquired.