From Breakthroughs to the Battlefield: Best Practices for Tapping Into the Power of Prototyping

Abstract

"Discussions of prototyping often invoke references to the Valley of Death, with blame frequently placed on the acquisition community for not transitioning prototypes and repeated calls for acquisition reform. If done right, however, prototyping programs can sit at the intersection of technology risk reduction, systems engineering and integration, acquisition and production efforts, and end operational use, with benefits that extend beyond developing knowledge and operational capacity. With the intent to rethink the prototype process and reconsider how successful prototyping is designed and measured, this paper assesses the value of prototyping, challenges and barriers to prototyping, and the DOD prototyping ecosystem. The research team conducted surveys, organized webinars, held workshops, and arranged one-on-one interviews with government, industry, and academia representatives to identify the benefits of prototyping, document best practices, capture the challenges of achieving successful prototyping, and offer a way forward. The findings from the working groups, interviews, and internal research were consolidated into a draft report that will be submitted to a group of expert external reviewers prior to publication. The paper concludes that many challenges to successful prototyping lie in a disconnect between stakeholders on what constitutes a successful prototyping program and outcome, along with a dearth of reporting and documentation infrastructure. This leads to a failure to take advantage of the numerous benefits of prototyping, including those less considered such as workforce development and enhancing manufacturing capacity. The paper also provides actionable best practices for production and policy recommendations for DOD, Congress, and industry to address these issues. These include resolving disparate definitions and standards, developing processes to measure success and evaluate outcomes, effectively leveraging all readiness levels to accelerate prototype maturity, aligning prototyping efforts with Services acquisition strategies and stakeholders, building avenues for user and technical community feedback to prototyping programs, and committing to knowledge capture and sharing across the disciplines to truly learn at the speed of relevance and create prototypes that work today. "