Smiter
Nimrod 2000 (nuff said)
Smart procurement Mantra – faster, cheaper, better (time, cost and performance)
A few practicalities…..
If you deliver faster, then the financiers moan because you’ve screwed up the spend profile (as you have to cough up at the wrong time). They actually pressurise you to engineer a complementary slip on another programme. Or if you say you can achieve earlier ISD when submitting, they just delay approval.
If you deliver cheaper (but to the required spec) then you are seen as a menace, as DEC will expect the same from everyone. This leads to dumbing down. However, if you deliver cheaper (but nastier), you get some clown ranting about “always buy COTS” and the User complaining when it doesn’t work in the desert due to heat and sand. If “cheaper” comes about because you’ve identified and achieved a real saving, then beware, because CDP and junior ministers have ruled that’s a punishable offence. You may think everyone benefits, but you’re actually making the scrutineers look foolish.
And it is formal MoD policy to “encourage” DEC to accept lower performance, even if this means not meeting many of the Key User Requirements. (Read any BOWMAN report). If they roll over, everyone gets a good report and moves on/up. Then the successor has the pleasure of staffing an “incremental upgrade” programme (another tenet of Smart Procurement) whose sole aim is to get somewhere remotely close to the original spec. (Read any BOWMAN report!!).
Smart procurement? 1st of April isn’t it?