In effort to fix the critically serious and known problems that have plagued DoD acquisition for R&D and delivering new capability for decades, the DoD unveiled The Adaptive Acquisition Framework as a remedy. However, the graphic representation of the framework clearly shows that all acquisition pathways lead back to the same place, the traditional acquisition system, while obfuscating the alternatives. What it shows more than anything else, is that a problem cannot be solved with the same thinking that created it. The ‘framework’ IS the traditional system. It subjugates alternative and innovative ways of contracting and doing business, limiting consequential change or screwing it up completely. The (mal)Adaptive Acquisition Framework does more to constrict thinking than it does to expand, the opposite of its stated intent.
One glaring example is no mention of Other Transactions for Middle -Tier Acquisition birthed the same year in the same section of code where Congress mandated ‘preferential’ use and education of these authorities. This is an example of the inability to conceptually make connections and understand what the whole looks like, or perhaps it is further evidence of institutional corruption. Whether it be ignorance, apathy, or antipathy, DoD goes out of the way to ignore the generous solutions and expert recommendations in order to stay the course and continue with business as usual.
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.” – Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)