Keywords: data management, data science, Defense acquisition
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the Military Departments need authoritative data to manage and oversee DoD’s major acquisition programs—the 80+ largest programs, which are estimated to spend $1.9 trillion in development and production costs over their lifetimes. The Program Offices provide data, and analysts at both the Component and OSD levels use it for insight on program health and to support planning and budgeting to meet the Department’s goals. The Secretary of Defense uses the data to assure Congress and taxpayers that the Department is wisely spending the resources it is given. To provide such authoritative data, OSD and Component acquisition experts have established accurate, authoritative, and reliable Acquisition data and championed tools and techniques to support decision-making, program and portfolio oversight, program execution monitoring, analysis, and statutory reporting on the Department’s portfolio of major programs.
Implementation is focused on data management, reporting tools, and analysis support capabilities. All are critical to successful use of data to support Defense Acquisition decisions. All require ongoing management and evolution. Over the past decade, the Department has clarified what data is needed for core use cases and captured metadata in a framework. That framework is the foundation for reporting and analysis capabilities. Implementation also requires changing the hearts and minds of stakeholders. With change management and proven value, the demand for data and data science support is increasing. Analysts want deeper insights more efficiently. Leaders need ready insight on programs and portfolios. The future is a Defense Acquisition community that turns to data as its first input to decision making, uses data as the starting point for problem solving, and examines data for insights that will drive the future of the tools and the business of defending our country.