Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition New Approaches and Methodological Improvements (1998) / Chapter Skim
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10 Increasing Access to Statistical Expertise for Operational Testing
10 Increasing Access to Statistical Expertise for Operational Testing
Pages 157-164
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From page 157... ...
The panel is aware of some efforts in the DoD test community to make greater use of the statistical knowledge and tools available to it and to increase the statistical resources that are at hand. Courses in statistics are made available to staff at the service test agencies, particularly the Air Force Operational Test and 157
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From page 158... ...
Finally, the service test agencies make use of and occasionally develop statistical software to help in test design and evaluation. RAPTOR, developed at the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center and used to evaluate the reliability of component systems, is a particularly relevant and impressive example of this.
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From page 159... ...
Fourth, there is the widespread belief in the DoD test community that statisticians will only recommend unaffordably large operational tests, based on arguments related to tests with sufficient power, regardless of the costs of test units; that they will ask for too much time for evaluation, regardless of the need for a timely decision; and, more broadly, that the discipline of statistics is generally useful only for large sample size questions. The last point, in particular, does not reflect awareness of the most up-to-date statistical advances.
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From page 160... ...
The interaction of the defense and statistical communities, in general, is less than it could be; one approach could be the establishment of a defense statistical consulting unit within the Department of Defense, where test design and evaluation would be one among several of its primary responsibilities. Another approach may come from the academic community: for example, the Georgia Institute of Technology has recently established the Test and Evaluation Research and Education Center, a program that will be conducive to various kinds of interactions with the defense testing community, such as sabbaticals for visiting faculty at federally financed
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From page 161... ...
Recommendation 10.1: The service test agencies should place greater emphasis on the statistical training of their nonmilitary staff, especially in the areas of experimental design, reliability theory, data analysis, use of statistical software, and total quality management. In addition to increasing the availability of statistical expertise in the defense testing community, it is also desirable to increase the familiarity of defense decision makers, particularly those in the acquisition process, with statistical concepts and the benefits that advanced statistical applications can provide to improving the process of defense acquisition.
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From page 162... ...
Such a group needs to be large enough and stable enough to maintain continuity over time in methods and advice. The specifics of the charter for such a Statistical Analysis Improvement Group should be developed by key personnel in the office of the Secretary of Defense: Recommendation 10.2: DoD should create a Statistical Analysis Im provement Group in the Department of Defense (using existing person {Parametric cost estimates are developed by relating the actual historical costs of earlier similar weapon systems to their performance characteristics to make statistical projections of the most likely costs of new weapons.
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From page 163... ...
Of particular interest to the panel are the policies, practices, and priorities of these agencies in sponsoring statistical research. These agencies have, over the past decade, given little emphasis to the development of appropriate statistical methods relevant to the developmental and operational testing associated with the Department of Defense's acquisitions programs.
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From page 164... ...
Developing such a research program, including preferred providers in government, industry, and academia would be a good continuing task for the Statistical Analysis Improvement Group that we recommend be established. One of its missions should be to advise the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology on the priorities of research on technical issues raised by the developmental and operational testing of defense systems and the potential sources for such research.
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