The Defense acquisition workforce has faced challenges at other times in its history, but as of 2021, it’s living in interesting times. Contracting officers, program managers and other acquisition professionals are navigating their way through some big changes. Just to name a few: a major recent rewrite of the DoD 5000.02 series of policy instructions, a massive rise in interest in other transaction agreements and other nontraditional procurement vehicles, a new “pathway” designed for software acquisition, and new ways to budget for those software procurements.

On this special edition of On DoD, we’re joined by three of the key leaders who are helping to prepare the workforce for these new challenges, and who are also finding new instructional and collaboration mechanisms to provide acquisition professionals with the tools they need to meet their missions. Our guests are James Woolsey, the president of Defense Acquisition University, Frank Kelley, DAU’s vice president, and Michelle Currier, professor of contract management at DAU.