JIEDDO Experience Provides Rapid Acquisition Insights
The wars in Southwest Asia have demonstrated new ways of procuring and deploying state-of-the-art capabilities and systems, and some of these methods can be applied to acquisition reform. The breakneck speed of technological change has many agencies throughout the U.S. Defense Department seeking different procedures for procurement that would enable faster acquisition of vitally needed equipment.
Formed in 2006 amid a flood of casualties caused by a swiftly adapting enemy employing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) successfully used innovation and rapid acquisition to bring solutions to the battlefield faster than traditional Defense Department organizations. Recently, the department broadened JIEDDO’s mission, renaming the group the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency (JIDA). JIDA’s rapid acquisition capabilities were preserved by transitioning the expedient organization that received supplemental funding into the Defense Department’s newest combat support agency (CSA) reporting to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OUSD [AT&L]).
JIDA’s transition is a testimony to the success of a cultural emphasis on quick, measurable results. As now chartered, JIDA will enable the Defense Department to counter improvised threats with tactical responsiveness and anticipatory acquisition to support combatant commanders as they prepare for, and adapt to, battlefield surprise.
Rapid acquisition is an art that consists of several key factors to address warfighter needs expeditiously. Processes that have been refined and effectively exercised by JIDA over the past decade serve as part of rapid capability development and delivery.
Organizations seeking to execute rapid acquisition should look at the characteristics of JIDA. A few of these attributes, however, may be difficult to replicate.
One is the special funding the group initially received. Its three-year congressional appropriation, the Joint IED Defeat Fund (JIEDDF), provided flexible and unconstrained support—uncolored money enabling easy reprogramming to meet urgent priorities and to seize technological opportunities. JIDA was the beneficiary of historically large funding levels as well, but no more.
The agency also had a direct reporting line to the deputy secretary of defense, but now it reports to the USD (AT&L). This structure provides JIDA stronger program oversight, increased collaboration with the defense acquisition community and more deliberate acquisition elements.
While organizations may not be able to mimic JIDA’s exact model, several actions are possible. One is to lead with a strong command emphasis on rapid acquisition. Leadership making speed a priority can eliminate deeply entrenched “speed bumps” and “iron rice bowls” that create drag. All JIDA officials understand that failure to adapt quickly puts people in harm’s way. To boot, JIDA’s new seal is emblazoned with the Latin motto “Apto Aut Morior,” or “I must adapt or I will die.”
Another action is to follow agile development principles. JIDA embeds people with a focused understanding of the threat and its evolution at critical nodes to capture operational challenges and needs. Working at the tactical edge allows quick starts on emerging requirements even as official documentation works through the system. Agency personnel must know the problem they want to solve. The quicker they know the problem, the quicker they can react.
An organization also must understand its capability portfolio. With a solid knowledge of requirements as well as existing and nascent capabilities, JIDA applies its adopt, buy or create (ABC) approach to invest only in filling gaps. Once JIDA determines a capability gap, it also must understand what needs to be done to address the problem.
Defining the various performance parameters and thresholds can take years with the standard acquisition process. Rapid acquisition, however, relies on a quick assessment of the portfolio, the concept of operations (CONOP) and the alternatives. It requires a willingness to accept “good enough” rather than perfect. The objective is to go with the 51 percent solution now and refine it over time.
Organizations also need to create mechanisms to assess potential industry solutions efficiently. The rapid pace of industry innovation dictates that they must broadly and quickly identify opportunities that require minimal investment with low risk of organizational conflicts of interest. Now fiscally constrained, JIDA explores new ways to find the right solutions, including forging more partnerships across government, academia and research and professional organizations.
In addition, the agency has streamlined acquisitions processes. JIDA meets the requirements of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) with its Joint IED Defeat Capability Approval and Acquisition Management Process (JCAAMP). JCAAMP, which embodies JIDA’s forward-thinking acquisition approach, is fully documented and available for others to use. On January 7, the Defense Department issued its Instruction 5000.02, “Operation of the Defense Acquisition System.” Enclosure 13, “Rapid Fielding of Capabilities,” was influenced heavily by JCAAMP. Now that department policy has folded the JIDA approach into the acquisition paradigm, other defense agencies—and perhaps non-Defense Department organizations—can confidently adopt and adapt what will work for them.
Organizations must foster the right culture as well. Culture is essential to JIDA. The right culture includes an intense passion for the mission, a tolerance for risk, a push for speed and an agnostic willingness to cut losses on projects that are not supported by facts, data and rigorous study, often via operations research/systems analysis (ORSA).
While risk-taking is more difficult in a fiscally austere environment, it still is critical and, if done correctly, increases the overall return on investment. Risk tolerance may include investing in crazy ideas, if only to gain knowledge of what to avoid later. JIDA’s deliberate risk tolerance and push for speed actually does not equate to a high failure rate. As part of the JIDA culture, its ORSA team systematically analyzes operational effectiveness. Of the 516 JIDA initiatives with sufficient information to judge operational effectiveness, 81 percent were effective; 10 percent were effective with limitations; and 9 percent were ineffective. It might be argued that slow acquisition has caused many initiatives to be operationally ineffective—perhaps even higher than 9 percent.
In addition to supporting risk-taking, organizations should maintain small teams of professionals who possess the right skills, experience and work ethos. Larger teams inherently are slower and require more managerial energy to organize, synchronize and direct. In small teams, each person’s expertise is critical.
Finding professionals with the right technical skills, especially for government work, is challenging; but with the right staff, the ability to move quickly is greatly enhanced. At times, this means paying more for people. A contractor that costs twice as much but gets the job done in a tenth of the time can be the right investment if an organization wants to save money, innovate and increase speed. In war, being too slow to the fight can be a killer.
Additionally, exploring nontraditional acquisition techniques is key. JIDA leverages methods such as cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs), challenge grants and gratuitous service agreements. JIDA’s use of challenge grants in acquisition, such as its robot rodeo and culvert IED challenge, are good examples of how to push science and engineering to field innovative solutions quickly.
Organizations should build a flexible contracting strategy focused on speed and innovation. For information technology, JIDA has partnered with the General Services Administration’s (GSA’s) Federal Systems Integration and Management (FEDSIM) program on incentive awards, innovation requirements and a flexible service catalog. The right contracting structure enables speed; the wrong one ensures drag.
Integrating internal business, security and operations processes with supporting information infrastructures is crucial to speed. JIDA develops, accredits and globally fields analytical applications for warfighters in two to four weeks from its receipt of the requirement. This “pathway to production” is frequently measured and continually improved. JIDA regularly looks at its entire workflow and value chain to identify points of drag. The agency constantly pilots new approaches and tools to add speed and quality, and it measures the cost-benefit of new ways of doing business. For example, JIDA is piloting the risk management framework and the use of Docker, an open-source tool that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers.
Organizations should form communities of action, or COAs. A best practice for solving difficult challenges is to form a COA with stakeholders and operators to surge on an issue. JIDA approaches problems by recognizing the need to capitalize on others’ capabilities both inside and outside the government—whether another department or a key industry stakeholder—to achieve an operational effect. These COAs quickly can identify an operational need and develop or procure capabilities. Examples of this approach are many: the Dismounted Operations Working Group, iCrew, the Tunneling Working Group and the Homemade Explosives Task Force, to name a few.
While listing these principles of rapid acquisition is relatively simple, making them work together is harder. JIDA has found many pitfalls and limitations in maturing its approach. Scalability is an issue—aircraft carrier-sized projects do not lend themselves to the JIDA brand of rapid acquisition. Another potential pitfall is developing the “bull in a china shop” or the “pros from Dover” attitude that can alienate customers and the defense acquisition community, which has many good reasons for the processes it uses and the time it takes. And even lavish resources can turn “let a thousand flowers bloom” into “let a thousand weeds obscure your view.” JIDA’s recent austerity push to improve efficiencies systematically actually increased speed by eliminating processes and systems that added little value.
Still, given noteworthy JIDA successes in areas such as big data analytics, the agency believes its approach presents significant opportunities for the government information technology community. Speed is desperately needed for government information technology acquisition—first, to leverage the accelerating pace of commercial product development, and second, to adapt to the environment of rapidly evolving cyberthreats.
JIDA was created to apply the best of new technology and techniques and to keep pace and even outpace adaptive threat networks. That JIDA is transitioning to a CSA means there is time now to share what JIDA has learned with others. While no formula ensures rapid acquisition, JIDA sees the core as leadership emphasis; speed; customer interaction to define problems clearly; knowledge of the capability portfolio; and innovation and improvements to adopt, buy or create a solution, such as the agency’s JCAAMP.
JIDA and many other federal organizations have demonstrated that government acquisition can be fast, efficient and effective. The entire defense community has a lot to learn and a lot of experience to share among its members. It is time to see how fast and efficient collaboration can make everyone.
