Techniques for Developing an Acquisition Strategy by Profiling Software Risks

Mary Catherine Ward
Joseph P. Elm
Susan Kushner

Technical Report

CMU/SEI-2006-TR-002

PDF File
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Acquisition Strategy Development Tool (ASDT) Excel File

The goal of acquisition planning is to create a roadmap that a program can follow to maximize its chances of successfully fielding a system that meets users' needs within cost and on schedule. Developing an acquisition strategy is a key component of acquisition planning that provides a means of addressing risks through the program structure. Programs need structured ways to reason about software risks, formulate acquisition strategies to mitigate software risk, and evaluate their current acquisition strategy in an ongoing, systematic manner.

This report introduces a taxonomy of strategy drivers and strategy elements and provides a method for performing a comparative analysis of the strategy drivers and the resulting strategic choices for the elements. The primary audience for this technical report and the accompanying Excel-based tool is program managers of government acquisition programs. The main prerequisite for successfully using this information is working knowledge of government acquisition practices.