Daily Archives: 2013-02-15

Requirements at the wrong level of detail

[This is a repost of my 30 Nov 2012 post on Intelink-U]

I just got tasked to review and comment on the UCR 2013. (That’s “Unified Capabilities Requirements 2013”, for the uninitiated.)

It’s 916 pages. I was given 2 weeks.

There is an apropos quote from the Defense Business Board report on LINKING AND STREAMLINING THE DEFENSE REQUIREMENTS, ACQUISITION, AND BUDGET PROCESSES:

Another needed change is common documentation in all three processes and, at the same time, reducing considerably the number of pages and reviews of the common documents. An example of how the requirements process should be simplified and streamlined is found in a statement by an Air Force Vice Chief of Staff: “Our long-range bomber is a great example. The requirements document left the Air Force and in a short period there were so many additional items hung on the platform it was quickly unaffordable. The requirements document had grown to over 1000 pages. We really needed the aircraft so three senior leaders sat down and re-wrote a three page requirements document that could not be changed without the approval of the SECDEF.

(emphasis added)

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