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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle C--Provisions Relating to Major Defense Acquisition Programs

P. L. 114-

House Conference Report. 114-270

(a) Revised guidance required.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall revise Department of Defense guidance for major defense acquisition programs to address the tenure and accountability of program managers for the program definition period of major defense acquisition programs.

(b) Program definition period.—For the purposes of this section, the term “program definition period”, with respect to a major defense acquisition program, means the period beginning with initiation of the program and ending with Milestone B approval (or Key Decision Point B approval in the case of a space program).

(c) Responsibilities.—The revised guidance required by subsection (a) shall provide that the program manager for the program definition period of a major defense acquisition program is responsible for—

(1) bringing technologies to maturity and identifying the manufacturing processes that will be needed to carry out the program;

(2) ensuring continuing focus during program development on meeting stated mission requirements and other requirements of the Department of Defense;

(3) recommending trade-offs between program cost, schedule, and performance for the life-cycle of the program;

(4) developing a business case for the program; and

(5) ensuring that appropriate information is available to the milestone decision authority to make a decision on Milestone B approval (or Key Decision Point B approval in the case of a space program), including information necessary to make the certification required by section 2366a of title 10, United States Code.

(d) Qualifications, resources, and tenure.—The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that each program manager for the program definition period of a major defense acquisition program—

(1) has the appropriate management, engineering, technical, and financial expertise needed to meet the responsibilities assigned pursuant to subsection (c);

(2) is provided the resources and support (including systems engineering expertise, cost-estimating expertise, and software development expertise) needed to meet such responsibilities; and

(3) is assigned to the program manager position for such program until such time as such program receives Milestone B approval (or Key Decision Point B approval in the case of a space program), unless removed for cause or due to exceptional circumstances.

(e) Waiver authority.—The Secretary may waive the requirement in paragraph (3) of subsection (d) upon a determination that the program definition period will take so long that it would not be appropriate for a single individual to serve as program manager for the entire period covered by such paragraph.

The House bill contained no similar a provision.

The House recedes with an amendment to clarify the period of time to which the required guidance applies, and to include authority for the Secretary of Defense to adjust program management assignment tenures, under certain circumstances.

Senate Report 114-49 to accompany S. 1376 as it was reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Tenure and accountability of program managers for program development periods (sec. 846)

The committee recommends a provision that requires the Secretary of Defense to revise Department of Defense guidance for defense acquisition programs to address the tenure and accountability of program managers for the program development period of defense acquisition programs. The committee believes that program managers in this phase should be assigned to a program long enough to prepare for a decision on milestone B approval.