Organizing to Manage Complex Systems, Workshop 3 -Competition and Innovation

Third workshop in the Organizing to Manage Complex Systems project, co-hosted by CSIS DIIG and the M.I.T. Security Studies Program, with the support of the OSD Systems and Software Engineering Directorate. Historically, when the complexity of weapon systems increased dramatically, the government has created new organizational structures and practices to manage their acquisition (the Gantt chart, PERT, FFRDC's).

Today, the Department of Defense faces another leap in complexity as the information revolution presents the opportunity to create large, complex net-centric system-of-systems. At the same time, individual weapon systems are becoming more complex as more technology is integrated, requirements mount and capabilities increase. Gaining maximum benefit from these innovations requires not only overcoming the technical challanges, but also confronting fundamental and profound policy, organizational and doctrinal issues. Toward that end, the Organizing to Manage Complex Systems project is a year-long study on the tools and organizational strategies needed to manage complex systems, from design to deployment. Workshop three focused on issues related to competition - at what level should competition be set (inter-service, prime contractor, subcontractor) and are particular competition solutions better suited for particular types of complex challenges?