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Delivering DUFFER

By Andrew Biehn, Gene Kim, Luke Burton, Steve Holt, Jay Long, Mike Snyder

Crossing the Bureaucratic Battlefield: A US Department of Defense Acquisition Professional’s Journey

Delivering DUFFER is a compelling narrative that follows US Army Colonel Frank Kafka’s journey through the complex world of defense acquisition as he attempts to deliver a revolutionary new logistics system. Through a series of illuminating dreams, each teaching crucial lessons, the story explores the challenges and solutions in bringing military innovation from concept to reality.

Written by a distinguished team of experts including Andrew Biehn (US Navy), Gene Kim (IT Revolution), and other industry leaders, this paper offers invaluable insights for program managers, defense contractors, and anyone involved in military procurement. The story artfully weaves together technical challenges, bureaucratic hurdles, and human dynamics to create an engaging and instructive tale.

Key themes include:
– Building effective relationships with stakeholders across the acquisition ecosystem
– Navigating complex funding landscapes and political realities
– Integrating end-user feedback throughout development
– Managing technical certification and cybersecurity requirements
– Testing in realistic operational environments

Inspired by the classic military text “The Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” this modern adaptation provides practical wisdom for today’s defense acquisition professionals. Through Colonel Kafka’s trials and eventual triumph, readers gain a framework for successfully delivering innovative capabilities to America’s warfighters.

This work is essential reading for military program managers, defense contractors and industry partners, acquisition professionals, military officers and civilian leaders, and anyone interested in defense innovation and procurement.

  • Format PDF
  • Pages 64
  • Publication Date

Features

  • Key Lessons

    A structured framework that distills complex acquisition challenges into actionable insights through Colonel Kafka's journey of trial and error.

  • Practical Guide

    A blueprint to transforming potential adversaries into allies by engaging users, technical experts, and decision-makers early in the development process.

  • Real-World Application

    Detailed strategies for navigating the defense acquisition system while maintaining focus on rapid capability delivery and mission success.

  • Concept to Combat

    Essential wisdom for bridging the "Valley of Death" between promising prototypes and field-ready systems that serve America's warfighters.

About the Resource

Delivering DUFFER is a compelling narrative that follows US Army Colonel Frank Kafka’s journey through the complex world of defense acquisition as he attempts to deliver a revolutionary new logistics system. Through a series of illuminating dreams, each teaching crucial lessons, the story explores the challenges and solutions in bringing military innovation from concept to reality.

Written by a distinguished team of experts including Andrew Biehn (US Navy), Gene Kim (IT Revolution), and other industry leaders, this paper offers invaluable insights for program managers, defense contractors, and anyone involved in military procurement. The story artfully weaves together technical challenges, bureaucratic hurdles, and human dynamics to create an engaging and instructive tale.

Key themes include:
– Building effective relationships with stakeholders across the acquisition ecosystem
– Navigating complex funding landscapes and political realities
– Integrating end-user feedback throughout development
– Managing technical certification and cybersecurity requirements
– Testing in realistic operational environments

Inspired by the classic military text “The Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” this modern adaptation provides practical wisdom for today’s defense acquisition professionals. Through Colonel Kafka’s trials and eventual triumph, readers gain a framework for successfully delivering innovative capabilities to America’s warfighters.

This work is essential reading for military program managers, defense contractors and industry partners, acquisition professionals, military officers and civilian leaders, and anyone interested in defense innovation and procurement.

Andrew Biehn
Gene Kim
Luke Burton
Steve Holt
Jay Long
Mike Snyder
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Andrew Biehn

Andrew Biehn

Captain Andrew Biehn is the Director of Development and Integration for the Program Executive Office, Integrated Warfare Systems, where he focuses on rapidly integrating and delivering new combat system capabilities. A naval officer for thirty years, Andy previously served as the Program Manager for the Aegis Integrated Combat System, the Program Manager for Aegis Fleet Readiness, commanded the destroyer USS Truxtun (DDG 103), and served in a variety of roles at sea and ashore.

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Gene Kim

Gene Kim

Gene Kim has been studying high-performing technology organizations since 1999. He was the founder and CTO of Tripwire, Inc., an enterprise security software company, where he served for 13 years. His books have sold over 1 million copies—he is the WSJ bestselling author of Wiring the Winning Organization, The Unicorn Project, and co-author of The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook, and the Shingo Publication Award-winning Accelerate. Since 2014, he has been the organizer of DevOps Enterprise Summit (now Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit), studying the technology transformations of large, complex organizations.

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Luke Burton

Luke Burton

Luke has three decades of experience contributing to high-performing engineering organizations. He spent nineteen years at Apple, where he worked in engineering, engineering management, and project management roles, contributing to multiple MacOS releases, product announcements, software supply chain security, and large-scale infrastructure. His work has supported building and securing Apple’s major operating systems and the development of critical tools and features used by thousands of engineers.

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Steve Holt

Steve Holt

Steve Holt has had a long and varied career at Boeing in engineering and management roles. He is a Technical Fellow and Socio-Technical Systems Engineer. His interests are in creating systems of management for successful product development efforts using Systems Engineering, Cynefin, and Theory of Constraints.

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Jay Long

Jay Long

Jay Long is an Innovation Officer in the US Special Operations Command's Army Reserve Element and the Founder/COO of Parlay, a fintech company expanding access to capital for underserved small businesses. His military experience includes service in Afghanistan and Korea. He has served as a Nonresident Fellow at the Modern War Institute and advised organizations including the Defense Innovation Board and Naval Postgraduate School on emerging technologies.

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Mike Snyder

Mike Snyder

Michael Snyder, Rancher Government Solutions, has been supporting the US Army and DOD since enlisting in the Army in 2002. He served nine years in Army technical intelligence analysis, collections, and planning. Upon leaving the military, he began his winding career through the world of consulting, eventually becoming immersed in the world of DevOps and digital transformation. Now he drives growth, and more importantly, mission outcomes. Focusing now on the Army, things have gone full-circle as he is helping to address the issues with the systems that failed time and again during his and other soldiers’ deployments overseas.

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