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The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) seeks to advance the ability of its software acquisition workforce to rapidly and reliably deliver complex software-dependent capabilities through an enhanced understanding of technical competencies, improvements to education and training, and guidance for workforce management and assessment. Focusing on three primary acquisition career fields - information technology, engineering, and program management - the authors review existing competency models used by DoD and commercial industry, along with industry trends and modern software practices, and gather feedback from stakeholders and subject-matter experts to develop a model consisting of 48 competencies organized by topic: problem identification, solution identification, development planning, transition and sustainment planning, system architecture design, software construction management, software program management, mission assurance, and professional competencies. They also review existing courses offered by the Defense Acquisition University, other DoD institutions, and private and public universities to determine whether and to what extent the courses offer software training and education that corresponds with these competencies, and to identify ways to address potential gaps. Although there is no currently accepted government job title or occupational series for software professionals, and although the competency model thus affords limited utility for assessing current workforce capability, the authors present options for tracking and managing the software acquisition workforce, as well as further steps toward validating the competency model.

The elimination in 2013 of the Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule potentially has opened to women some 15,500 SOF positions in specialties such as Special Forces, Rangers, and SEALs. Potential integration of women into SOF raises a number of issues pertinent to effectiveness of SOF teams, both from the perspective of physical standards as well as ensuring the readiness, cohesion and morale essential to high performing teams. This report has two main objectives. It assesses potential challenges to the integration of women into SOF for unit cohesion, and it provides analytical support in validating SOF occupational standards for SOCOM-controlled positions. Based on our survey of SOF personnel, opposition to opening SOF specialties to women is both deep and wide, with high levels of opposition across all SOF elements. This opposition is also deep-seated and intensely felt. The principal sources of this opposition are: the belief among SOF that women do not have the physical and other capabilities to meet the demands of their SOF specialties; the belief that the current, high levels of cohesion and trust in their units will suffer if women are allowed in; and the importance SOF personnel attach to maintaining high standards, coupled with deep concern that performance standards may nonetheless be lowered to enable women to qualify for their specialties. These survey results are supported and complemented by the results of our focus group discussions with SOF personnel. It is important to note that these findings reflect SOF personnels speculation as to the impact of the integration of women into SOF, rather than actual experiences of SOF personnel, because women are not in those units. Similar concerns were voiced in prior integrations of excluded groups, including the integration of women into other units and occupations.