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MARCH 2012 ISSUE AT A GLANCE - T&E at the Speed of Need

Dr. Steven Hutchison, Department of Defense Principal Deputy, Developmental Test and Evaluation, conceived the phrase "T&E at the Speed of Need" when he was Test and Evaluation (T&E) Executive at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The speed of need is the time between definition of a user need and initial operation of the capability. The demands of war have shortened the timeline on requirements for military systems. Rapid acquisition and rapid fielding initiatives arising from urgent operational needs have created an entire industry in the defense community. Commensurately hastened is the pace at which transportation security and border protection measures need to be deployed. We see information technology (IT), especially software, change with a frequency of months not years. T&E must be responsive to the acquisition timelines. The Federal Aviation Administration, Border Patrol, law enforcement and many other organizations have adapted to the changing speed of need. This issue takes a candid look at agile software development processes, defense IT acquisition reform, rapid acquisition and fielding, reconfigurable test capability, testing on demand, reuse and other ideas for streamlining the T&E process in support of accelerating deployment of new products, services and capabilities.

Brian Simmons, Executive Technical Director and Deputy to the Commander, US Army Test and Evaluation Command, uses the Guest Editorial to illustrate how T&E assists rapid delivery to ourwarfighters, and the inroads made that allow testers to review in-theater  erformance once initial deployment has occurred. Mr. Simmons then issues the imperative that we need to be prepared to take rapid acquisition lessons learned to our programs of record, because going faster is a reality for T&E. Dr. James Welshans, ITEA Historian and chair of the ITEA History Committee, documents in Historical Perspectives the speed of need epitomized in Britain’s response to the German V-1 attacks, defending  against an entirely new kind of weapon.

Army Major General Heidi Brown, Director for Test for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), uses the platform of an Invited Article to describe  the rate of ballistic missile threat development and proliferation and evolving threats, and the MDA response in the form of a test as we fight approach to developing and fielding the ballistic missile defense system. Randy Herrin and Neil Barrett of the DISA Joint Interoperability Test Command present the DISA solution to speed of need, embodied in implementing agile software development; attracting and retaining staff; and fostering collaboration among all major DoD T&E organizations. Agile is intrinsically collaborative, involving all stakeholders in its  processes. Jana Gallatin, also of the Joint Interoperability Test Command, presents agile processes to help integrate vendor and government testing.

Charles Wentz shares lessons learned from joint urgent operational needs programs and recommendations for improved integration and testing. Alan Jenkins of the Naval Air Systems Command advocates for a closer relationship between program management and test and evaluation teams for the benefit of both. Dr. John Colombi of the Air Force Institute of Technology and Captain Christopher Cobb of the Air Force Distributed Missions Operations Center review the current state of practice in the live-virtual-constructive test and training community. Dr. Haydee Cuevas et al. make the case for a multidisciplinary approach in the test and evaluation of operator performance of military systems. The multidisciplinary approach offers an effective and timely means for integrating technological innovations, addressing complexity and advancing the understanding of and improving human performance. Daniel Carlson and P. Travis Millet of the Air Force 412th Test Engineering Group at Edwards Air Force Base present the problem of efficient use of test resources as manifested through optimal planning of test points in a flight test program. They propose using a genetic algorithm and treating the problem as a constrained optimization, rapidly surveying a large parameter space and and producing a near-optimum ordered set of test points.