work. It means delivering incremen - tal capability rather than waiting for a complete solution and actively seeking feedback from users before a program reaches formal milestone reviews. It means making informed trade-offs at the program level with - out escalating every decision upward and treating an evolving requirement as information rather than disruption. None of these behaviors requires a policy change. They all require a shift in how professionals understand their own role. Programs that have made this shift share a common characteristic: Their program managers describe their re - lationship with the Warfighter as on - going rather than episodic. Rather than engaging users at requirements definition and again at operational testing, they maintain continuous touchpoints throughout develop - ment, building the kind of relation - ships that ensure delivered capabil - ity reflects actual operational need. The result is not just faster deliv - ery—it is delivery of capability that is actually used. The distinction between tradi - tional acquisition approaches and Agile-inspired practices reflects a broader shift in how value, risk, and execution are understood within the Warfighting Acquisition System, as summarized in Figure 1. Conclusion The ATS does not describe a fu - ture state. It describes Agile. Every principle it champions—iterative delivery, empowered practitioners, adaptive planning, tolerance for change—has been codified, tested, and refined by the Agile community for decades. The warfighting acqui - sition enterprise is not being asked to invent something new but to do something harder: Recognize that the solution has been available for decades, adopt the vocabulary that goes with the solution, and train a workforce to apply it with the same rigor it brings to cost accounting and requirements management.
Programs that have already em - braced these practices are not out - liers. They are proof. The only re - maining question is whether the enterprise will name what it is doing and, in doing so, give every acquisi - tion professional the framework, the language, and the institutional stand - ing to do it consistently. Call it Agile. Mean it. Build it into how the enter - prise teaches, plans, and executes. The speed of relevance demands nothing less. LEWIS is a Field Training Services Director and faculty at Warfighting Acquisition University, with nearly a decade of experience teaching acquisition professionals. She is an experi- enced program manager and a Project Man- agement Institute Agile Certified Practitioner who focuses on applying Agile principles to improve speed and effectiveness throughout the warfighting acquisition enterprise. Lewis holds an M.A. in Education from Concordia University and a B.S. in Business Administra- tion from The Citadel. The author can be contacted at Miranda.Lewis@waru.edu . The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the Department of War. Reproduction or reposting of articles from Defense Acquisition magazine should credit the authors and the magazine.
Related Resources
– (ACQ 1700) Agile for DoD Acquisition Team Members (Classroom) – (ACQ 1700V) Agile for DoD Acquisition Team Members (Virtual Instructor- Led Training) – (SWE 0013) Agile Organizational Optimization (Online Training) – (SWE 0098) Benefits of Agile for DoD Acquisition (Online Training) – (SWE 0099) Setting up
an Agile Project (Online Training)
MAY – JUNE 2026 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE 19
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