The Defense Department hopes to share its early requirements with industry more often as long as it can find a way to do so without creating misunderstandings, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Katrina McFarland said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s National Logistics Forum on April 16.
McFarland noted that government is better positioned for cheaper and higher-quality acquisition when industry has matched its internal research and development dollars to government needs. However, she added, “there’s a perception that the government posting this requirement states that then it’s going to engage in it. Requirements go through evolution–a lot of evolution, a lot of it’s based on market research and work with industry–so there is going to be some challenge in making sure that when we post requirements, when we find out how, that we are very clear that these are early stage requirements, that they’re only talking about what we think is coming up so that people don’t misconstrue that as, this is the next thing the service or the agency or the department is seeking.”
McFarland said the initiative to look into this problem is in its early stages, so she could not say how government would go about opening up this dialogue. But she said that, based on early feedback, the only reason government does not already do so is the fear of misleading industry.
“The Joint Staff has come to visit, and they’re interested in looking at how they can allow for the exposure of information on the generation of requirements early on,” she said, as long as the government has a way to protect itself.
McFarland also discussed an initiative with industry to understand how government implements acquisition regulation and what the impact on industry is. She said her office is working with a dozen companies to discuss a handful of regulations.
“It will allow us to understand really what it is that we’re doing, both industry and government, to implement those, and is there a more efficient manner in which to do it,” she said. She noted that the discussions have highlighted both inter- and intra-office discrepancies in how regulations are being implemented, which leads to confusion and inefficiencies.
The results of this initiative should help DoD understand how to more consistently and effectively work with industry under new regulations.