Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA)

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Is this your first time using the MTA Pathway?

Looking for some tips to help you be successful when executing an MTA Program?

If you answered YES to either of these questions, then this page is for you!

Reference Source: Guidance from OUSD(A&S)

When planning your MTA program…

• Don’t take on too much!  To avoid creating overly large MTA programs, consider only tackling one or two major risk areas in your program and leave the rest for a follow-on development program.
• Pursue outcomes not KPPs!  MTA supports changing requirements. This requires continual user involvement.
• Tailor in!  Plan to meet the “intent” of all statutory and relevant regulatory documentation to avoid issues with coordination and approvals. This can mean tailoring and combining key documents.
• Line up your funding!  Consider impacts of budget timing on the program’s proposed schedule.  Don’t rely on reprogramming requests or highly selective prototyping funds for full funding.
• Collaborate with your stakeholders!  Meet users and testing representatives early while planning your program to mitigate risk of future schedule delays that might push the program over five years. True partnering and collaboration across the Services, PEOs, OSD, Industry and your organization is essential.
• See the Rapid Prototyping MTA Planning and Rapid Fielding MTA Planning pages for more info

When contracting your MTA program…

• Partner with Your CO/KO!  Standard procurement timelines can be very lengthy. Partner with your CO/KO on ways to streamline processes to provide more time for the program to design, test and deliver.
• Have a responsive contingency plan!  If there is potential for a successful prototype being scaled to production, consider including the appropriate follow-on language in an Other Transaction (OT) vehicle to enable award of a follow-on Production OT or FAR contract without further competition.
• See the Rapid Prototyping Contracting and Rapid Fielding Contracting pages for more info

When beginning your MTA program…

• Tiered deliverables to reduce reporting burden!  Carefully read the distinctions between non-major systems, major systems, and exceeding MDAP-level thresholds [see Table 1 of DoDI 5000.80]
• See the Rapid Prototyping Entrance and Rapid Fielding Entrance pages for more info

When executing your MTA program…

• Iterate as often as possible!  Initial concept is the right solution about 10% of the time; iterating at least 2 times increases likelihood of success to 90%.
• Adaptive capability delivery requires discipline!  Rigor in systems engineering and planning is key to success.
• Deliveries of capabilities must be appropriately scoped!  Capability releases that contain too much content and releases with highly integrated hardware and software add risk to timely delivery.
• Manage your talent!  Requires support from all of the functional representatives and stakeholders.
• Invest in vendor relationship!  Prototyping approach requires alignment between vendor and government.
• Complete a system-level preliminary design review prior to system development! Acquisition programs that implemented this practice had 47% less unit cost growth and 35% less schedule growth (See pg 3, “Statistically Significant Knowledge-Based Acquisition Practices and Their Corresponding Unit Cost and Schedule Outcomes” from GAO-20-439)
• Release at least 90 percent of design drawings by critical design review! Acquisition programs that implemented this practice had 51% less unit cost growth and 40% less schedule growth (See same table as above on pg 3 in GAO-20-439)
• Test a system-level integrated prototype by critical design review! Acquisition programs that implemented this practice had 30% less schedule growth (See same table as above on pg 3 in GAO-20-439)
• See the Rapid Prototyping Prototype Development and Rapid Fielding System Production & Fielding pages for more info

When testing your MTA program…

• Deliver better solutions faster!  Conduct tests and operational demonstrations early and often! It’s better to get some preliminary data and user feedback in Year 1 on your program rather than wait for perfect test conditions in Year 2.
• Try, Fail, Learn, Try, Succeed!  
• Continue collaborating with your stakeholders!  Meet users and testing representatives regularly to mitigate risk of future schedule delays.
• See the Rapid Prototyping Test & Demo and Rapid Fielding Test & Demo pages for more info

When reporting your MTA program…

• Use your resources!  Before completing your first PID, iterate with your Component MTA POC beforehand to ensure you are submitting the correct information.
• Help is available!  When submitting your PID, hover over entry fields for additional notes/ instructions when submitting information into specific worksheet cells.
• Minimal reporting!  Submit updated PIDs to OUSD(A&S) only twice a year. Submit on-time and ask for help early to reduce rework.
• See the Enter Program Data, Rapid Prototyping Reporting & Governance, and Rapid Fielding Reporting & Governances pages for more info