Increasingly, the Department of Defense (DoD) and federal agencies acquire software-intensive systems instead of building them with internal resources. However, acquisition programs frequently have difficulty meeting aggressive cost, schedule, and technical objectives.

Through the Acquisition Support Program (ASP), the SEI works directly with key acquisition programs to help them achieve their objectives. Teams of SEI technical experts work in actual acquisition environments in the army, Navy, Air Force, as well as other DoD and civil agencies, applying SEI products and services in specific contexts.

The vision of the Acquisition Support Program is to facilitate the rapid establishment of agile teams composed of acquirers, developers, and operators using SEI technologies to provide evolutionary, high-quality, cutting-edge software-intensive capabilities to the warfighter.

Acquisition program managers are challenged not only to grasp practical business concerns, but also to understand topics as diverse as risk identification and mitigation, selection and integration of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, process capability, program management, architecture, survivability, interoperability, source selection, and contract monitoring. The SEI has spent almost two decades compiling a body of knowledge and developing solutions for these topics.

Our Mission

The purpose of the Acquisition Support Program is to help Department of Defense (DoD) and other government acquirers make evolutionary and revolutionary improvements in the acquisition of software-intensive systems, and to provide opportunities for SEI programs to create, apply, and amplify new technologies. ASP creates mechanisms to gather, analyze and characterize the state of practice for acquiring software-intensive systems, apply SEI and other technologies and practices to improving the state of practice in acquisition programs, and amplify and transition results to the acquisition community.

The ASP program is focused on direct interaction with the defense community. The program

• transitions technologies and practices to improve DoD software-intensive systems
  
• performs diagnostics such as Independent Technical Assessments (ITAs) and Independent Expert Program Reviews (IEPRs)
• helps with RFP preparation
• helps with technical evaluations of proposals and deliverables
• collaboratively develops acquisition technologies and practices
• transitions technologies and practices to the DoD acquisition community's collaborators
• reviews and advises DoD on acquisition policy related to software-intensive systems

We Can Help

The ASP is a technical program focused on delivery, support, and integration of software-intensive systems acquisition practices to help acquisition program offices. With the addition of the ASP, the SEI is positioning itself as a facilitator and leader of a community of practice for the acquisition of software-intensive systems.

The ASP works closely with all the other SEI programs to provide support to acquisition customers via Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) comprising members from all of the SEI technical programs and other technical staff (such as visiting scientists and affiliates). ASP also provides the technical programs with acquisition expertise in support of their technical initiatives.