Defense Information Systems Agency: Cooperative Review

BENS, in cooperation with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), reviewed several procurements of an information technology (IT) capability or service with a goal of identifying and quantifying legislative, regulatory, cultural and organizational impediments that contribute to the breakdown in the overall acquisition system. DISA was a particularly apt target for this pilot project because IT is a distinct and different subset of all the Pentagon‟s procurements and because DISA operates in a joint environment managing acquisitions for all the military services.

The procedures developed and lessons learned from the pilot project with DISA are intended to inform a broader BENS effort on reforming defense acquisition law & oversight. We want to encourage the next Congress and Administration to confront the challenge of changing two decades of accumulated defense acquisition law, regulation and policy that have defined a culture and created an organization described as “distorted, inefficient, and ineffective.”