Here’s another story about buying systems without a clear concept of who is going to operate it:
I was at my neighborhood spaghetti dinner and I happened to sit across from some guy who – it turns out – also works for OSD. He’s a contractor working for OUSD(AT&L) on a system that he was quite enthusiastic about called “Contingency Acquisition Support Model (cASM)”. (I have no idea why they capitalize it that way.) This system, cASM, is a web-based application designed to assist people responsible for initiating contracting requirements in an contingency or expeditionary environment. I understand it as workflow automation for contracting in a crisis.
Since I’d been thinking about this a lot, I immediately asked him, “Who is going to run it?” and he said, “Oh, it’s hosted by DISA.”
I tried not to choke, and said something like, “That’s not what I meant. Okay, DISA hosts it, but who is going to run it?”