Enclosure 2 -- 3. User Needs and Technology Opportunities

3. User Needs and Technology Opportunities

   a. The capability needs and acquisition management systems shall use Joint Concepts, integrated architectures, and an analysis of doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities (DOTMLPF) in an integrated, collaborative process to define needed capabilities to guide the development of affordable systems. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the assistance of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), shall assess and provide advice regarding military capability needs for defense acquisition programs. The process through which the Chairman provides advice is described in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction 3170.01 (Reference (h)). Representatives from multiple DoD communities shall assist in formulating broad, time-phased, operational goals, and describing requisite capabilities in the Initial Capabilities Document (ICD). They shall examine multiple concepts to optimize the way the Department of Defense provides these capabilities.

   b. When the ICD demonstrates the need for a materiel solution, the JROC shall recommend that the MDA consider potential materiel solutions. The cognizant MDA is determined as described in Enclosure 3. The MDA, working with appropriate stakeholders, shall determine whether there is sufficient information to proceed with a Materiel Development Decision. If the MDA decides that additional analysis is required, a designated office shall prepare, and the MDA shall approve, study guidance to ensure that necessary information is available to support the decision.

   c. Promising technologies shall be identified from all sources domestic and foreign, including government laboratories and centers, academia, and the commercial sector. In addition, PMs shall consider the use of technologies developed under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and give favorable consideration to successful SBIR technologies. The risk of introducing these technologies into the acquisition process shall be reduced; coordination, cooperation, and mutual understanding of technology issues shall be promoted. The conduct of Science and Technology (S&T) activities shall not preclude, and where practicable, shall facilitate future competition.

   d. The DoD Enterprise Architecture shall underpin all information architecture development. In accordance with DoD Directive 8000.01 (Reference (i)), each integrated solution architecture shall have three views: operational, systems, and technical. The standards used to form the technical views of integrated architectures shall be selected from those contained in the current approved version of the DoD IT Standards Registry (Reference (j)).