Commercial ATS program management

With the defense industry's ever-increasing reliance on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Automatic Test Systems (ATS) and commercial suppliers, there is a need to recognize and actively manage the gap between the expectations of the defense industry and the commercial community. The key to a successful program has proven to be investing time during the proposal stage and at contract award to clearly define the COTS deliverables and the level of detail of required data. This requires discipline from the supplier (engineering, sales, and the proposal team) as well as the procuring agency to agree that the time investment is worthwhile. This paper examines the problem and outlines proven strategies in managing this gap.