National Test and Evaluation Conference

The 28th Annual National Test and Evaluation Conference will focus on the proper role(s) of Test and Evaluation in our Defense System Requirements Process.  Valid, measureable, realistic and achievable requirements establish the foundation for successful materiel development programs.  Experiences gained through years of testing and evaluating successful and unsuccessful systems provide the T&E community with a unique perspective on what constitutes valid, measureable (i.e. testable), realistic and achievable requirements.  The Honorable Dr. Michael Gilmore, Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), in a memorandum for DOT&E staff, established four major initiatives including an initiative for the T&E community to “engage early to improve requirements.”  Specifically, he directs DOT&E staff members and the greater T&E community to “…work to assure that systems have realistic, relevant and testable requirements and identify to DOT&E leadership for action those programs that don’t.”  The memo goes on to specify eight actions required to accomplish the initiative:

• Review requirements as they are developed to assess whether they are unambiguous, testable, relevant to accomplishing missions in combat, and operationally and technically realistic; 
• Seek opportunities to be involved in reviews of requirements conducted before those requirements are submitted for consideration within OSD;
• For each project under oversight, review the Test and Evaluation Strategy (TES) and Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP) to assure they include testing in realistic operational environments initiated during development and continuing through operational testing. This continuum of realistic testing will place increasing stress on subsystem components before final integration into a “full-up” system, thereby identifying problems when they can be fixed cost-effectively;
• Identify operational concerns to program offices and DOT&E leadership at the earliest possible time so that they can be resolved in a timely manner;
• Identify for action by DOT&E leadership test-critical resource shortfalls;
• Assure testing in a joint environment is included in TESs and TEMPs where appropriate and feasible;
• Assure developers and the operational community share a clear, common understanding of the planned Concept of Operations (CONOPS) or identify for action by DOT&E leadership inconsistencies in those views. If the CONOPS is not available, work to assure a representative set of CONOPS is included in TESs and TEMPs.
• Identify to DOT&E leadership when programs lack a Reliability, Availability, Maintainability-Cost report providing the rationale for meeting reliability requirements.