Guidance & Tools

This page provides links to DoD guidance and tools related to developmental test and evaluation and modeling and simulation. Guidance related to safety in acquisition is found on the Acquisition and Technology Programs Task Force (ATP TF) website, sponsored by the Defense Safety Oversight Council. Additional guidance and tools regarding systems and software engineering is available on the SSE Guidance and Tools page.

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• Developmental Test and Evaluation (DTE)
  • Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG)
    • The Undersecretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) directed the development of this virtual Defense Acquisition Guidebook to assist the DoD acquisition workforce in using and understanding the DoD Acquisition Policies, and the guidance associated with those policies. This site provides the following multi-view perspectives to help the user easily navigate policy and discretionary best practice documents: document, life cycle framework, and functional/topic.
  • DAG Chapter 9, Integrated Test and Evaluation
    • The purpose of this chapter is to help the program manager develop a robust, integrated T&E strategy to assess operational effectiveness and suitability and support program decisions. It presents an overview of the T&E support and oversight provided by the Offices of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E); and the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, and Technology/Systems and Software Engineering (DUSD(A&T)SSE) as well as specific types of T&E: Developmental Test and Evaluation, Operational Test and Evaluation, and Live Fire Test and Evaluation. It addresses T&E planning and specifically addresses the T&E Strategy and the Test and Evaluation Master Plan.
  • Guide on Incorporating Test and Evaluation into DoD Acquisition Contracts, September 2008 FINAL DRAFT FOR FINAL APPROVAL VERSION
    • This guide is designed to help the Department of Defense (DoD) and industry test and evaluation (T&E) professionals identify T&E items to consider for inclusion when drafting a statement of objectives (SOO), statement of work (SOW), and request for proposals (RFP), and during solicitation and contract execution. The guide presumes the reader has an understanding of T&E and the DoD systems acquisition processes as described in Department of Defense Instruction 5000.02 (DODI5000.02), and the Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG), and particularly, Chapter 9, Integrated Test and Evaluation. This guide follows the format and some content in the published guidebook on contracting for systems engineering (SE). Where the SE guidebook is primarily for the system engineers this guidebook focuses on the T&E topics, issues, and items relative to the same contractual documents as referred to in the SE guidebook. The guide is structured to address generic T&E items common across DoD Components.
• Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Support for Acquisition
  • DoD 5000.59-M, DoD Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Glossary, January 15, 1998
    • This Manual's purpose is to prescribe a uniform glossary of modeling and simulation (M&S) terminology for use throughout the Department of Defense. In addition to the main glossary of terms, it includes a list of M&S-related abbreviations, acronyms, and initials commonly used within the Department of Defense.
  • Recommended Practices Guide for Verification, Validation, and Accreditation (VV&A), Build 3.0, September 2006
    • The Department of Defense (DoD) and the military services have recognized the growing significance of modeling and simulation for many aspects of their operations, and have prepared directives and guidelines to provide general instructions on how, when, and under what circumstances formal VV&A procedures should be employed. This Recommended Practices Guide (RPG) is intended to facilitate the application of those directives and guidelines, and to promote the effective application of Vv&A. The RPG describes the interrelated processes that make up VV&A from a number of perspectives. Different sections of the RPG cover the different roles and responsibilities of the various participants; discuss special topics associated with VV&A; identify tools and techniques, and provide reference material on related areas. This document continues with an informal discussion of the key concepts of VV&A—the principles, rationale, terminology, and general approach to conducting Vv&A for models and simulations. It provides an analogy from everyday life intended to demonstrate the practicality of VV&A and concludes with a summary of the costs and benefits and an introduction to the remainder of the RPG.
  • Guide for Modeling and Simulation for the Acquisition Workforce, Version 1.01, October 2008
    • Modeling and Simulation (M&S) capabilities and limitations are often not adequately understood and M&S is sometimes not planned and managed with sufficient care. Although we can model many things quite credibly today, such as physical capabilities, natural phenomena, and physics-based interactions, it is much more difficult to reliably represent things we understand less well, such as human behavior, reliability, and emergent behaviors of complex systems. It must also be remembered that M&S capability involves not just the software tools themselves, but the data that feeds them; the computing platforms that execute them; the standards, middleware and networks that may interconnect them; the encryption capabilities and security constraints that protect them; and, most importantly, the people that plan, develop, integrate, verify, validate, accredit and use them. Deficiencies in any of these present a risk to a program. This guidance is intended to help acquisition managers approach the use of M&S wisely and plan carefully for issues that should be addressed.