This introductory chapter focuses on DARPA’s key features—its mission, organization, linkages to other organizations, and “political design”—and how those features have contributed to its success.
PREFACEThe Missile Defense Agency (MDA) tasked IDA to study and assess management methods and organizational structures that have proved successful in the development of technologies, with an emphasis on the roles of longer term science and technology (S&T) work and radical innovation in support of ongoing systems development. To do so, this report reviews and analyzes the experiences of several (1) public organizations that undertook large-scale systems developments and (2) large private companies that have been consistently technically innovative. This provides the groundwork for consideration of specific management and organizational options for MDA.The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Paul
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