The other side of the coin ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sargent
Adam ran up against this when he was at SYSCOM. In the midst of deploying a new system one of the contractors told him that the product they had promised at $3 million in 3 months would actually cost $6 million and take 6 months to develop -- which they demonstrated in a 100+ slide power-point presentation.
There are, indeed, some sleazy contractors. If you want horror stories, I can easily top that one.
But the coin has a flip side. Was the $6M, 6 mo. product really the same as the $3M, 3 mo. product? The government has to be willing to hold the line on requirements. In fact, the guilt for that ... well, no one is innocent. It takes work, hard decisions and discipline to nail down system requirements up front. See: Better Weapon Program Outcomes Require Discipline, Accountability, and Fundamental Changes in the Acquisition Environment GAO-08-782T