The Department Friday issued the new DoD Instruction 5000.87 Operation of the Software Acquisition Pathway. The document “establishes policy, assigns responsibilities, and prescribes procedures for the establishment of software acquisition pathways to provide for the efficient and effective acquisition, development, integration, and timely delivery of secure software in accordance with the requirements of Section 800 of Public Law 116-92.”

Important to note that Para 3.2.h. establishes the following requirements related to a Life Cycle Product Support Strategy:

“Life Cycle Product Support Strategy.

(1) The PM will develop a product support strategy in accordance with applicable DoDIs that treats software development as the continuing evolution of capability across the lifetime of the system, rather than assume discrete “acquisition” and “sustainment” phases. Such a strategy will incorporate early integration of key stakeholders and planning for supportability of the software from program inception, in order to facilitate software maintenance upgrades and evolution in key activities throughout the development. If using the embedded software path, the product support strategy should be aligned with the overall sustainment strategy for the weapon system. The strategy should consider concurrent program activities that may span multiple funding appropriations.

(2) The strategy will address contracting for tailored technical data in order to enable seamless transition of the software and its support to another organization, if and when needed. The strategy will discuss how key enabling resources (e.g., a continuous authority to operate (cATO), if applicable, automated test environments and support, or a selected development environment) will transition to government or other sources of software engineering competence. The strategy will include how any transitions allow for continuous testing and monitoring, and address the need to provide subject matter experts and/or ensure all software engineering staff are trained in the tools, techniques, and environments.”