Measuring the Success of Acquisition Reform by Major DoD Components

Abstract

Using publically available data, this research seeks to establish measurements for recent acquisition reform efforts to assess the success of reform and examine differences in performance among the DoD components, before ultimately looking at how DoD components may have institutionalized acquisition reform efforts differently. Leveraging nearly a decade's worth of experience utilizing the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), the research analyzes contracting trends for the major DoD contracting components to measure how well they met the stated objectives of the recent reform efforts. The report first provides a history of acquisition reform and a methodology for leveraging the wealth of data in FPDS, before applying that methodology to DoD components to measure implementation of the reforms. The report then provides a background on the recent major reforms and how they sought to change the acquisition system. This report breaks out contracts by the policy regime on the date the contract was signed to provide a look at the successes and failures of each components implementation under the various reform efforts.