Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment – The Recommendation for Time Certain
Development: Sizing Considerations
Dr. Peter Hantos
The Aerospace Corporation
P.O. Box 92957 – M1/112
El Segundo, California 90009-2957
Office phone: (310) 336-1802
Office fax: (310) 563-1160
peter.hantos@aero.org
ABSTRACT
As a significant milestone in the DOD’s continuous self-assessment process, the Defense
Acquisition Performance Assessment report was released in early 2006. A far-reaching
recommendation of the report is the introduction of Time Certain Development as a preferred
acquisition strategy, making schedule a Key Performance Parameter. By mandating high
confidence cost and schedule estimates, two arms of the well-known “Iron Triangle” (Cost,
Schedule, and Performance) become fixed, leaving only requirements in the project management
trade-space. The paper’s objective is to offer engineering perspectives and a discussion of the
underlying, parametric estimation issues that impact the successful implementation of the
report’s recommendation.
SPEAKER’S BIOGRAPHY
Peter Hantos is a Senior Engineering Specialist at The Aerospace Corporation. In this capacity
he has been supporting the US Air Force, the NRO, and NASA on software process issues
related to the acquisition of space systems. He has over 30 years of experience as a professor,
researcher, software engineer and manager, and has authored numerous technical papers, U.S.
and international conference presentations. Prior to joining Aerospace, as Principal Scientist at
the Xerox Corporate Engineering Center, he developed corporate-wide engineering processes for
the development of software-intensive systems. Earlier, as Department Manager, he directed all
aspects of quality for several laser printer product lines. Other highlights of his Xerox career
include the creation and management of a software technology group to facilitate the technology
transfer and productization of software prototypes from the Palo Alto Research Center. He holds
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest,
Hungary.