7-8 July 2004

Over the last twenty years, the rate of Information Technology (IT) development has exploded and become globalized. As one bi-product, the traditional Department of Defense (DoD) role in IT has changed. Where DoD once dominated the funding of IT, its investment is currently a small proportion of the commercial investment. This is particularly important because DoD is relying on technological dominance in its use of IT to effect the Transformation of the force.

Consequently, DoD needs to place renewed emphasis on capitalizing on the commercial IT base. However, it is recognized that there are substantial challenges in implementing that strategy. DoD is perceived as a difficult customer for commercial IT companies (e.g., it is deemed overly bureaucratic, inflexible, and slow). Many of the most innovative commercial IT companies have been created recently and are still quite small. It is difficult for DoD to find these small companies, in a timely fashion, to influence the development of their products or help them navigate the complex DoD acquisition process. Furthermore, it is often difficult to integrate these commercial products into DoD systems because of specific military functionality, maintenance requirements, and security concerns.

In recent years, Congress has voiced interest in taking steps to enhance the use of commercial IT in DoD systems. Consistent with that interest, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP), National Defense University (NDU), has performed research on this subject and is in the process of performing additional studies. These ongoing studies are producing preliminary recommendations on options to enhance the use of commercial IT in DoD systems. Those preliminary recommendations constitute the point of departure for this workshop.

The goal of this workshop is to identify and characterize a set of actionable recommendations to enhance the use of commercial IT in DoD systems. It is anticipated that these recommendations will first be submitted to the Secretary of Defense for his consideration. Subsequently, an appropriate set of these recommendations will be transmitted to key Congressional committees to provide a basis for formulating future legislation. These recommendations will subsume possible actions to change culture, modify organizations, educate and train key participants in the process, formulate DoD policy, change regulations, reallocate resources, and modify processes.

Presentations

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense or any other agency of the Federal Government. Cleared for public release; distribution unlimited.