What is it about?
The Affordability Maturity Assessment Methodology (AMAM) architecture is intended for use within the U. S. Department of Defense, the Defense Acquisition System (DAS), the defense industry organizations who design and build military capabilities and defense weapon systems. The AMAM can be implemented as early as prior to the Concept Development and Demonstration (CDD) decision milestone and/or during the development phases leading up to the decision milestone for mass production, also known as Full Rate Production. The intended users of the AMAM are systems engineers, program managers, project managers, value engineers, proposal and contract personnel that are involving in cost and schedule estimations, technical requirements development, cost, schedule, and technical performances management organizations.
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Why is it important?
Systems are becoming more complex while engineering of these systems is facing challenges in funding reduction and shortened schedules due to the fact that technologies emerge and quickly became obsolete. At the same time, “Do more for less” is a new reality for the U.S. defense industry. This new reality has changed the way systems engineering practitioners think and act through organizations – from public to private sectors, including academes: - More: profitability, defensibility, complexity, and safety - Less: funding, capability, and eventually less of accessibility into knowledge because investment will be, or has been, prioritized for survivability (or get-by) rather than preparing for tomorrow The AMAM provides meaningful status of a program to develop a US defense system in terms of meeting schedule, cost, and technical requirements.
Perspectives
To win defense contracts under the "do more for less" environment, Defense Contractors must be proactively controlling and managing cost, schedule, and technical performances. To successfully implement Better Buying Power Initiative, the US DoD must also be proactively engaging affordability maturity assessment throughout the acquisition phases. The intent of the AMAM is to establish requirements for any defense acquisition program to proactively assess and measure the involved organizations' ability to develop the intended capabilities within cost and schedule targets. Successful programs not only generate profit for contractors but also enable the US DoD to procure more capabilities or better defense our nation with fewer dollars.
Long S Dong
Southern Methodist University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Methodology for Affordability Maturity Assessment, Systems Engineering, July 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/sys.21360.
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