tively and confidently manage their data in the model. The foundation is the Data User. This is the largest group and represents the entire acquisition workforce across all functional areas.
tal thread that connects other models and data systems across functional areas and throughout the program’s life cycle. A 2025 GAO report (GAO-25- 107569) noted that despite the push for digital engineering, few major pro - grams have effectively implemented “digital threads” to enable “real-time data to guide decision-making,” a shortfall that leaves DoW programs heavily reliant on disconnected leg - acy workflows. It must be possible to seamlessly share data among our enterprise data systems in order to realize the power of a digital acquisition approach. This requires open and reliable program interfaces that are not robustly pres - ent in current tools. Creating an authoritative system model is useful but limited if data in the program stays siloed and hidden behind a complex interface that the workforce lacks the skills and confi - dence to access. Evolution of Data Access Phase 1, Data in the Dark (the doc- ument era). The document phase is where data live in individual files such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. The data are dis - connected and lack a digital thread. This requires updates to be manually propagated through the mountain of separate files, which is inefficient, error-prone, and requires Herculean manual coordination. This document- based management has been our standard operating procedure since the inception of warfighting acqui - sition and is the foundation of our culture.
In a document-based approach, the interfaces with enterprise data and the acquisition workforce us - ers are both manual and primitive. Data must be manually transferred and consolidated. Additionally, the workforce must manually locate separate files, search for the needed data, and consider whether the doc - ument includes the most current in - formation or may have been updated elsewhere. This process is slow, cum - bersome, and prone to missing or in - correct data, depending on the level of human rigor in file configuration management. Phase 2. Data in the Vault (SysML v1 and beginnings of AI integration). The next evolution is digital engineer - ing, made possible by Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools us - ing the SysML v1. Authoritative data now live within the system model rather than in disconnected docu - ments. Permissions may be estab - lished so that the model is accessible to the entire team, configuration- managed, and serves as a consoli - dated, authoritative source of truth. SysML is ideal for requirements, archi - tectures, use cases, and more to fully define and describe the system. This is a powerful evolution in ca - pability. But even in 2020, long after SysML v1 tools and capabilities had become available, MIT researchers found that nearly 88 percent of engineering practitioners still use documents as the primary method for capturing and communicating system information, despite broad interest in MBSE. My experience working with the acquisi - tion workforce shows a similar trend:
Figure 1. WarU Digital Acquisition
Workforce Skills
Modeler
Data Changer
Data User
Source: Author
The entire acquisition workforce— including program managers, con - tracting officers, financial managers, logisticians, and more—needs au - thoritative information to make daily decisions, but does not need to build or maintain the model. Unfortunately, current SysML modeling tools are largely designed for Modelers, while the vast majority of the acquisition workforce consists of Data Users. Not everyone has to be a Modeler, but everyone in the acquisition work - force needs to efficiently and confi - dently access the authoritative data. WarU’s digital acquisition curricu - lum is focused on making all three tiers effective, with the largest invest - ment empowering model users with the skills to understand and access the authoritative data in the system model that is relevant and critical to their functional area. AI tools now of - fer the promise of lowering the tech - nical barrier so that the entire acquisi - tion workforce has reliable and direct access to the authoritative data they need without the added friction of considerable technical complexity. Enterprise barrier. The enterprise interface is the connection between the SysML system model and the digi - Figure 1. WarU Digital Acquisition Workforce Skills
Typical of many systems engineering issues, the weaknesses and gaps are at the interface between authoritative data and acquisition workforce users who need access to the data for their jobs— and at the interfaces between enterprise data systems.
44 DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER –OCTOBER 2026
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