Acquisition Process

Defense Acquisition Milestone Overview

Milestones are a point in time when a recommendation is made to the Milestone Decision Authority (MDA) about starting or continuing an acquisition program into the next Acquisition Phase.  The milestones and Milestone Requirements are established by DoD Instruction 5000.02 “Operation of the Defense Acquisition System”. The milestones are represented by triangles (Δ) with the letters A, B, or C inside them in the figure below.
Acquisition System



Milestone A

The goal of Milestone A (MS A) is to determine if a program has met all its exit requirements of the Materiel Solutions Analysis (MSA) Phase to proceed into Technology Maturation & Risk Reduction (TD) Phase.  The Exit Criteria are determined by the MDA and the Acquisition Category (ACAT) level.  A few of the common requirements are:

Milestone B

The goal of Milestone B (MS B) is to determine if a program has met all its exit requirements of the Technology Maturation & Risk Reduction (TD) Phase to proceed into the Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) Phase.  The exit requirements are determined by the MDA and the ACAT level.  A few of the common requirements are:

Milestone C 

The goal of Milestone C (MS C) is to determine if a program has met all its Exit Criteria of the EMD Phase to proceed into the Production and Deployment (PD) Phase.  The exit requirements are determined by the MDA and the ACAT level.  A few of the common requirements are:

AcqNotes Tutorial

AcqTips:

  • A complete list of statutory requirements by ACAT is located in DoDI 5000.2 in Enclosure 4. The exit criteria are developed by the program manager and key Stakeholders at the beginning of each phase and approved by the MDA.  In order for any program to be successful, all exit criteria must be defined, understood, and agreed upon by all stakeholders.  Failure to do so will cause cost and schedule delays.  The Exit Criteria should be located in the Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM), program management plan, and executive summary.

AcqLinks and References:

Updated: 2/20/2024

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