The U.S. Government and Department of Defense are examining how to deploy new technology development methodologies to increase the fielding rate of software and related technology-based systems. DoD is specifically focusing on Open Technology Development (OTD), which refers to technology and business process mechanisms to allow Government-funded software code to be shared and collaboratively developed across DOD activities. This methodology allows organizations and contractors to rapidly adapt and extend existing software capabilities in response to shifting threats and requirements without being locked in to a specific vendor or held hostage to proprietary technologies. As the concept advances, DoD believes that OTD could help ease the looming shortage of available software programmers needed to meet ever-increasing demands for the rapid generation of accurate, reliable software in a cost effective manner.

As part of the project, the team will determine the policy, procedural, and cultural changes needed within Government to employ these industry-proven strategies. Building on previous open source software studies, experiments, projects, and initiatives, this project will recommend changes in the process of technology acquisition to shift procurement from slow, opaque proprietary systems to open, market-based methodologies based on open standards, service-based architectures, open source collaboration, and software reference implementations. This goes beyond the use of private sector open source software solutions (e.g., Linux, Apache, and open source collaborative tools such as blogs and wikis) to software development specific to the Government, which may never leave the confines of Gov-networks.