According to Coyle: Procurement Advice from Experience

Canadian Parliament(click to view larger) Philip E. Coyle, III served as the Pentagon’s Assistant Secretary of Defense and Director, Operational Test and Evaluation from 1994-2001. On March 29, 2007, he spoke before Canadian Parliamentary representatives and talked about his experiences. The speech covered “Four Critical Problems”: (1) Unrealistic requirements; (2) Unrealistic costs and schedules; (3) Unrealistic contractual environments; and (4) Preparing for realistic operational environments… and offered “Ten Solutions,” summarized here as a simple list: # Parliamentary Oversight and Review. “…In Canada – as well as in the U.S. – this requires legislative staff with the kinds of technical backgrounds needed to fully understand what the contractors are claiming, and how likely it is that those claims can be realized…” # Competition in contracting # Requirements and Requirements Change Control # Commercial-Off-the-Shelf/Non-Developmental Items (COTS/NDI). “Fourth, don’t consider a product to be COTS/NDI unless you can truly buy it off the shelf, it comes with a users manual, and it has been tested in the same environments in which it is to be used by the military…” # Pay attention to contractor incentives # Avoid unrealistic expectations in defense contracts # Assess Technology Readiness Levels # Recognize the importance of government […]