Framework for Organizational Needs of Innovation in the Department of Defense

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumThe Department of Defense is a performance-based bureaucracy that focuses on time, schedule, and budget to evaluate the performance of its programs. The DoD is driven to perform its national security mission and to maximize results works to make every process and activity as predictable as possible. Bringing cohesion and simplifying communications internally and externally facilitate process, but come with risk for innovation. There is a need for better oversight, with the right kind of performance measures. This is somewhat at odds with the requirements of innovation organizations (i.e., those organizations with innovation as a primary mission) that must have a high degree of freedom and flexibility in which to develop new approaches. At the same time, innovation efforts are reinforced and accelerated by maintaining consistent processes for contracting, personnel matters, budgeting, and other organizational concerns.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited