Augustine's Laws and Major System Development Programs
Norman R. Augustine

In this slightly irreverent essay, Mr. Augustine argues that the world of systems acquisition is governed by certain "laws" that are as immutable as the natural laws that govern the universe. It's an amusing look at some very real and very serious problems.

Moving from Best Practices to Standard Practices in Defense Acquisition
Alex Miller and Joshua L. Ray

A decade of acquisition process improvement efforts has produced numerous best practices that have not spread to become sta nda rd practices. This research explores how organizations have successfully overcome the challenges of turning their isolated best practices into widespread standard practices.

The Effects of System Prototype Demonstrations on Weapon Systems Development
Edward J. Copeland, Thomas H. Holzer, Timothy J. Eveleigh, and Shahryar Sarkani

The findings from this research indicate that system prototype demonstrations do indeed have a profound positive inf luence on the outcome of weapon systems development performance.