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This groundbreaking cultural evolution was introduced by the UK MOD acquisition community during the late 1990s to modernise the defence approach to procurement and support. It exploits a range of well established quality and systems techniques, the implementation of which underpinned by substantial cultural change. Smart Acquition has evolved substantially over the past 5 years to more effectively deal with complexity and systems intergration and the scope of application is now extending beyond the equipment domain. Initially launched under the 'Smart Procurement' banner, it was subsequently retitiled as 'Smart Acquisition' to reflect its importance to the whole of the acquisition cycle.

The objectives of Smart Acquisition are: - To deliver projects within the performance, time and cost parameters approved at the time the major investment decision is taken - To acquire military capability progressively, at lower risk, and with optimisation of trade-offs between military effectiveness, time and whole life cost - To cut the time for key new technologies to be introduced into the frontline, where needed to secure military advantage and industrial competitiveness Smart Acquisition has a number of key features: - A whole-life approach, embodied in a single Integrated Project Team (IPT) bringing together the main stakeholders. The IPT exists for the life of the project, moving from the DPA to the DLO at an appropriate time. Industry is part of the IPT except when competition makes this impracticable. - Clearly identified customers for the IPT. An Equipment Capability Customer (ECC) who has responsibility for identifying the capability required to meet the UK’s Defence objectives, for translating those requirements into an approved Equipment Programme and for acting as lead customer for the equipment until it enters service. A Second Customer responsible for converting the capability provided by the ECC into a military capability, managing the equipment in-service and for providing relevant advice and expertise to support the ECC’s remit to optimise future capability.

People who make an effective contribution to Smart Acquisition are likely to share the following values and beliefs: - An empathy with the customer, supporting a commitment to providing equipment which meets the user’s needs, on time and budget - The drive to deliver a high level of performance, as a result of programme setting and monitoring progress against agreed target milestones - A desire to work co-operatively with fellow team members and others, valuing the diversity of the team and understanding the different roles of colleagues - A predisposition to share ideas and information, and the resolve to overcome problems - A wish to challenge convention and improve processes rather than hide behind ‘the rules’ and be satisfied with current performance ‘norms’ - A willingness to identify, evaluate and implement effective trade-offs between system performance, whole-life costs, annual cost of ownership and time. - An open and constructive relationship with Industry, based on partnering and the identification of common goals including gain-share opportunities, underpinned by competitive contractor selection whenever this provides best value for money. - A streamlined process for project approvals.

The Acquisition Cycle The objective of the Acquisition cycle is to assist the reduction of risk during the Concept and Assessment stages so that, at Main Gate, there is a high level of confidence that project targets for time, whole-life cost, annual cost of ownership and performance will be achieved. Encouraging a greater proportion of project expenditure in these early stages is therefore a key feature of Smart Acquisition. At the highest level, each of the six acquisition stages involves executing the plan agreed in the previous stage, reviewing the outcome, and planning for the remaining stages. The basic content of each stage is as follows:

Concept: Produce and baseline a statement of the outputs or results that users require from the system, framed as a User Requirements Document (URD). Form the IPT. Initial involvement of Industry. Identify technology and procurement options for meeting the need that merit further investigation. Obtain funding and agree plan for the Assessment and subsequent stages, identifying performance, cost and time boundaries within which it is to be conducted. Produce Through Life Management Plan (TLMP). Pass Initial Gate, where the Assessment Stage is approved and time, cost and performance boundaries of validity will be noted for the project as a whole.

Assessment: Produce and baseline the System Requirements Document (SRD), defining what the system must do to meet user needs as stated in the URD. Establish and maintain the linkage between user and system requirements. Identify the most cost-effective technological and procurement solution. Develop SRD, trading time, cost and performance to identify the technological solution within the Initial Gate boundaries. Reduce risk to a level consistent with delivering an acceptable level of system performance to tightly controlled time and cost parameters. Refine TLMP. Pass Main Gate with tightly defined and approved performance, time and cost boundaries.

Demonstration: Progressively eliminate development risk in order to fix performance targets for manufacture, ensuring that linkage is maintained between the final selected solution and the SRD and URD. Place contract(s) to meet the SRD. Demonstrate ability to produce integrated capability. In many cases, demonstration is the stage where a single contractor is selected. However, this should be done at a stage appropriate to the project, which could either be earlier or later in the project life-cycle.

Manufacture: Undertake production and deliver the solution to the military requirement within the time and cost limits appropriate at this stage. Conduct System Acceptance to confirm that the system satisfies the SRD, and thereby the URD, as agreed at Main Gate. Transfer line management of IPT to DLO and lead customer function to the Second Customer.

In-Service: Confirm that the military capability provided by the system is available for operational use, to the extent defined at Main Gate, and declare In-Service Date. This may happen in Manufacture instead. Provide effective support to the front line. Maintain levels of performance within agreed parameters, whilst driving down the annual cost of ownership. Carry out any agreed upgrades or improvements, refits or acquisition increments. Disposal: Carry out plans for efficient, effective and safe disposal of the equipment.

Smart Requirements Smart Requirements is a method of capturing, engineering and managing requirements based on the principles of Systems Engineering. The key objective is to deliver a whole-system, wholelife, evolutionary requirements process which involves all stakeholders and delivers effective and sustainable defence systems to the front-line. Smart Requirements replaced the old process of producing Staff Targets, Staff Requirements and their equivalents for smaller projects, and focuses on user needs rather than equipment characteristics. The Smart Requirements process is based around two key documents or databases: User Requirements Document (URD) (prepared and owned by the relevant Director Equipment Capability (DEC)) The URD is an all-embracing, structured expression of the user needs for a bounded operational capability. It is generated from the Single Statement of Mission Need identified through the capability strategy process. The URD identifies the capability that may, over time, be satisfied by one or several systems. The URD consists of a complete set of individual user requirements supported by other documents. URDs are the means by which the DEC develops, communicates and maintains the user’s requirement throughout the life of the system.

URDs identify and clarify the need in order to: - Communicate the user need to other parties, primarily the IPT and Industry. The URD underpins the Customer Supplier Agreement (CSA) between the DEC and the IPT Leader and, together with the SRD, underpins the Invitation to Tender issued to Industry. - Provide the benchmark against which analysis of trade-offs is conducted. - Underpin the Business Case for Initial Gate and, along with the SRD, Main Gate Approval. - Provide the verification criteria against which the final solution is validated. - Maintain the link between the changing needs and achieved capability throughout the life of the equipment.

System Requirement Document (SRD) (prepared and owned by the IPT) The SRD defines, in output terms, what the system must do to meet user needs as stated in the URD. Together with the URD, it provides the basis for advising Industry of MOD’s requirements. The linkage between individual requirements within the URD and the SRD is maintained to show the origin of every demand placed on the system and how each user requirement is met. The SRD is produced by the IPT. Some SRD work will take place ahead of Initial Gate approval in order that equipment options can be identified for Initial Gate. The SRD is updated as required to reflect trade-off decisions and approved system enhancements in response to changes in the URD. It is baselined as necessary to allow the approval of the planned system, or system upgrade, and progressive development of solutions (including the potential for collaboration with one or more nations).