Flexible Funding For Acquisition And Development
The US Army is set to release a new software directive in the coming weeks, aiming to bring more flexibility to acquisition and modern software development. According to Undersecretary Michael Obadal, the current rigid funding authorities have hindered the Army’s ability to buy modern, agile software. The new directive, dubbed Budget Activity 08, will realign funding from various appropriations to a new software and digital technology budget activity. This change is expected to ensure the Army is maximizing flexibility for its operations and maintenance, procurement, and research, development, testing and evaluation buckets of money. The Army also plans to scrap compliance mandates for the Software Acquisition Pathway model and establish a software response team. The new directive was announced at the AFCEA Army IT Day, as reported by Breaking Defense.