Human Total Cost of Ownership Decision Support System (HTCO)

Realistic cost estimates are essential to the acquisition process. This proposal argues that approaches such as Total Cost of Ownership fall short of assessing the full costs of an item to be acquired because they largely avoid one main source of costs (and benefits) of the products/system to be acquired – the human costs over a system’s life cycle. The proposed effort focuses on enhancing a revolutionary approach to identifying and incorporating the human costs of ownership into the acquisition process, the Human Total Cost of Ownership (HTCO) model. We propose to expand and tailor the HTCO taxonomy to meet the needs of Department of Defense acquisition, and to develop an initial design and architecture for an acquisition Decision Support System (DSS) that uses HCTO to identify, track, and manage human costs as separate Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) in an acquisition. The technical approach includes collecting and analyzing a baseline sample of case study data from Defense Acquisitions and using that data to expand and tailor the HTCO human cost taxonomy. Products will include a refined HTCO framework and a conceptual prototype of an HCTO-based DSS for DoD guidance related to identification of human-related costs.