DoD: Acquisition Shows Improvement (But Still Needs It)

On October 24, 2016, DoD released its annual report on the performance of the defense acquisition system – the fourth in a series continuing a “long-term effort to bring data-driven decision making to acquisition policy.” Generally, the report discusses many areas in which acquisition has improved (e.g., cost control) or is doing better than perceived (e.g., high-level program requirements, acquisition cycle times, private sector profitability), but it also highlights areas where improvement is needed (e.g., competition rates (which fell in FY 2015) and utilization of small business subcontractors (which “has been declining since FY 2010”)).