A Decision Support Tool for Development Planning

Decision Science Associates, Inc. (DSA) proposed to develop and demonstrate an automated decision support tool for long-range acquisition planning. This tool will support the assessment and prioritization of system concept alternatives and supporting technologies based on military operational requirements. Phase I consists of 3 tasks. In Task 1 we will identify the important aspects of the long-range acquisition process that should influence the development of a decision tool. These include: missions, organizational dynamics, technologies, interdependencies, management style, database integration, and others. In Task 2, we will examine the strengths and weaknesses of feasible analytical approaches and recommed the one to develop into a decision support tool. At a minimum, we will examine Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Multiattribute Utility (MAU) analysis, and a hybrid approach that combines features of both QFD and MAU. In Task 3, we will develop and demonstrate a working prototype system. At a minimum, this system will: provide rank ordering of system concepts and technologies; permit the user to query the system to trace a technology linkage back to user requirements, and incorporate pre-programmed features to facilitate sensitivity analyses.