Milestone A

The Milestone A decision made by the MDA approves the program’s entry into the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction (TMRR) Phase and release of final RFPs for TMRR activities. Consistent with the Agile culture, documentation should be streamlined to the maximum extent possible and approved at the lowest possible levels. To make the Milestone A decision, the MDA must have sufficient insight into the analysis performed and confidence in the program and its strategies for conducting the activities in the TMRR phase. The MDA should focus on the strategic elements, issues, and risks while delegating detailed reviews to the appropriate functional leaders. Estimated costs, mission criticality, and program risks often dictate the amount of oversight needed for the program. Scoping and structuring smaller programs will inherently reduce costs and risks to improve speed of delivery and probability of success. Agile milestones bring leaders and stakeholders together to agree on a common vision/expectation, align the program with enterprise architectures, and ensure the program is viable with sufficient resources.

Milestone A offers another key opportunity to ensure all stakeholders share a common understanding and support of a tailored acquisition environment to enable Agile adoption. Programs should take this opportunity to showcase program learning, efficiencies, and other wins attributable to Agile practices during the Materiel Solution Analysis (MSA) Phase. Reinforcing the key principles, culture, and objectives helps to ensure stakeholders, including oversight organizations, enable the program to deliver capabilities via small, frequent releases.

The TMRR phase presents an excellent opportunity for one or more developers to deliver a few “risk reduction releases” via an Agile process. This activity can be greatly enhanced using an existing contracting vehicle that allows a program to conduct continuous risk reduction activities throughout the life of the program.  This provides the government insight into the capabilities of potential developers and an opportunity to prototype high-priority or higher risk functionality, and gives the government personnel hands-on experience with and increased confidence in the Agile approach. The acquisition team will then be better informed to shape the acquisition strategy, requirements, and future RFP(s) to enable more successful outcomes.

The program manager presents the approach for acquiring the preferred materiel solution, including:

• Acquisition Strategy
• Business approach
• Framing assumptions
• Assessment of program risk and planned mitigation activities
• Should cost management targets
• Affordability analysis/goals
• Component cost estimate for the preferred solution(s) in the AoA
• Demonstrate the program will be fully funded within the FYDP

Potential Tailored List of Required Information for Milestone A (per DoDI 5000.02) See documentation section of Develop Acquisition Strategy for guidance and potential documentation approaches.

Acquisition Decision Memorandum Upon approval, the MDA will capture the following in an ADM.

• Determination on materiel solution
• Approval of plan for TMRR phase
• Release of final RFP for TMRR efforts
• TMRR exit criteria/EMD entrance criteria
• Affordability goals for unit procurement and sustainment costs

References:

• MS A ADM Template
• Reduce Agile Project Risk with Light-Weight Milestones
• Agile/Lean Documentation Strategies, Scott Ambler
• Lean IT Governance, Disciplined Agile Delivery