Cyber capability development for the department of defense

The cyber threat was named the number one strategic threat against the United States (U.S.) in 2013. The Department of Defense (DoD) has the responsibility to protect the U.S. against this threat and subsequently relies on its acquisition framework to procure material solutions. The DoD acquisition system has received harsh criticism that the process is too slow, goes over budget, does not meet time schedules, and produces ineffective solutions. This issue has risen to a level of concern that the National Defense Authorization Act, since 2010, has mandated the implementation of a logistics infrastructure that facilitates rapid acquisition for Information Technology (IT) and cyber solutions. The focus of this research was to explore the capability development process as it relates to cyber warfare. In 2012, the DoD implemented a process called the IT Box model to streamline and facilitate the rapid procurement of software based IT solutions. Yet, many people believe that the implementation of agile development principles would be a more effective solution towards meeting the DoD cyber requirement.;Grounded Theory guided the research activities of this thesis as DoD subject matter experts within the cyber, acquisition, and engineering disciplines provided the expertise to investigate capability development efforts in the specific area of the cyber requirement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted over a 30-day period in the Washington, DC and Virginia region to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the capability development process.;The data emphasized the fact that the IT Box model is DoD's attempt to add agility to the capability development process and it is a step in the right direction, but not the end-state solution. In addition, agile development principles are also a step in the right direction towards capability development efforts, as many DoD organizations have already started to adopt these principles. Though agile development principles has found wide success in various Fortune 500 companies, implementation within DoD presents various challenges that non-governmental companies do not have to deal with.;The research and findings of this thesis will provide a baseline for future efforts for rapid acquisition efforts in the cyber domain.