DOD refreshes acquisition policies

The Defense Department released a new directive for its overarching policy guidelines governing its buying practices.

DOD issued Directive 5000.01, the overarching guidance that focuses on the roles and responsibilities for its acquisition process, DOD announced Sept. 9. The update also includes new tenets implemented by the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, a streamlined set of pathways aimed to help speed up buying and delivering DOD's needs.

Ellen Lord, DOD's acquisition chief, has made it a priority to overhaul the defense acquisition practices during her tenure by reforming the DOD 5000 series instructions with a simplified rewrite to improve the process of buying everything from software to services.

"We have a much more flexible way of doing business now codified in policy," Lord said at the Defense News virtual conference Sept. 9, regarding the move that comes after previous updates in the last year to mid-tier and urgent acquisition policies.

Lord said the changes to 5000.01, paired with the already released 5000.02 instructions that address the use of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework pathways, lay a foundation for more flexible acquisition in DOD and can help get technology fielded to the warfighter faster.

"Now we have software policies where we can move in a much more modern way," she said.