Overview[]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has adopted the Acquisition Lifecycle Framework (ALF) to assure consistent and efficient acquisition management, support, review, and approval throughout the Department. The ALF applies to the acquisition of capital assets, enterprise service contracts, strategic sourcing, and Inter Agency Agreements. The ALF interlinks the Department's requirements process, the resourcing process (Le., Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution), and other processes such as systems engineering and enterprise architecture.
The ALF is a four-phase process by which DHS determines whether it is sensible to proceed with a proposed acquisition. The four phases are:
- Need: identifying the need to be addressed by the acquisition;
- Analyze/Select: analyzing the alternatives to satisfy the need and selecting the best option;
- Obtain: developing, testing, and evaluating the selected option and determining whether to approve production; and,
- Produce/Deploy/Support: producing and deploying the selected option and supporting it throughout the operational lifecycle.
Each phase culminates in a presentation to an Acquisition Review Board (ARB), at which the Acquisition Decision Authority (ADA) decides whether the proposed acquisition meets certain requirements necessary to move on to the next phase and eventually to full production.
Source[]
- Department of Homeland Security, Acquisition Management Directive 4 (Directive Number: 102~1) (Jan. 20, 2010) (full-text).