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Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program

A major rethink of NAVSEA’s shipyard contracting strategy is required to support the critical need of improving our naval fleet availability. Operational Fleet material availability is reduced when various parts of the “NAVSEA production system” operate at cross-purposes. By increasing alignment between major players (i.e., NAVSEA and the private shipyards), major improvements in delivery performance, cost, and even throughput can be realized. Developing strategies and specific actions to do so is a rich field given the current state of the system. We take an analytical as well as evidence-based approach to propose strategies that can be successful given the peculiar conditions of ship repair and modernization. Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program

Acquisition programs continue to struggle with increasing complexity. High degrees of emergence, interconnectedness, and uncertainty are the norm rather than exception. The purpose of this research is to explore extension of ongoing research in complex system pathologies for acquisition programs. Significant advances have been made in development of deeper understanding of the nature of pathologies (deviations from healthy system function) and their implications for performance of complex systems. Complex system pathologies represent "violations"of underlying system principles. These violations negatively affect system governance functions (control, oversight, accountability) resulting in degradation of system performance. Greater understanding of complex system pathologies offers insights to enhance complex system performance. This paper reports on the current state of development of a method to identify, represent, and assess systemic pathologies in complex systems. The method examined (M-Path Method) supports enhanced capabilities for pathology discovery, support for prioritization based on impact ranking, and provision of guidance for feasible strategic response across a spectrum of pathologies. Thus, the acquisition field and practitioners will benefit from results reporting on (1) acquisition field advancement through system science-based research into impediments to system performance, (2) providing a research-based method to improve acquisition program performance, and (3) reporting on successes and lessons learned from preliminary application of the method. The paper concludes with discussion of initial applications of the method, developmental areas, and guidance for acquisition practitioners. Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program

The defense acquisition system has been the source of intense scrutiny and calls for reform for over four decades. This research is to examine the contributions of Systems Theory to enhance prospects related to acquisition reform. Systems Theory offers a set of principles, laws, and concepts that explain the behavior of complex systems. Although the acquisition system and constituent programs have been critiqued and examined from multiple perspectives, they have never been the subject of exploration from Systems Theory. Recent advances in Systems Theory have identified 83 different potential system pathologies that can result in degraded system performance or outright failure. System pathologies have been previously defined (Keating & Katina, 2012) as "a circumstance, condition, factor, or pattern that acts to limit system performance, or lessen system viability, such that the likelihood of a system achieving performance expectations is reduced."Following a brief introduction to Systems Theory, this paper reports on efforts to (1) briefly examine the current state of the defense acquisition system and programs, focused on successes, failures, major reform themes, and critical challenges for moving forward; (2) mapping of systems pathologies to provide a different "Systems Theory"based perspective of acquisition system reform as well as acquisition system development; and (3) suggest implications for acquisition system development based on contributions from Systems Theory. The paper concludes with future research directions for Systems Theory contributions to the acquisition field and reform efforts. Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program

The acquisition field continues to face increasing pressures to perform under conditions of escalating complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. These conditions suggest that traditional approaches, practices, and acquisition technologies might be incongruent with support demands for acquisition practitioners. This research is focused on exploiting and extending recent developments in Complex System Governance (CSG) to advance the acquisition field. CSG is focused on the design, execution, and evolution of fundamental system functions necessary for control, communications, coordination, and integration of complex systems (e.g., acquisition). CSG is based in Systems Theory (fundamental laws governing complex systems), Management Cybernetics (the science of effective system organization), and Governance (provision of direction, oversight, and accountability for systems). Recent advances in CSG (Keating, Katina, & Bradley, 2015) make this an opportune time for exploitation of this field to advance acquisition research and practice in novel ways. Following an introduction and literature review, this paper reports on efforts to (1) establish a systems theory based framework for Acquisition System Governance, (2) mapping of systems pathologies (systemic errors that degrade system performance) to a CSG Reference Model with implications for acquisition practice, and (3) suggests implications for moving CSG forward to improve acquisition practice. The paper closes with directions for bringing CSG to practice through research based application development. Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program