Recommendations from the Defence First Principles Review are wide-ranging but will in most instances be judged by the success of reform of capability development. This paper proposes two key measures on which to judge the early success of Defence’s capability development reforms. First, the author proposes the formation of an industry-standard program management office (PMO) to oversee the life cycle of all acquisition projects from inception to final operational capability as part of comprehensive and balanced programs. Second, the author proposes the creation of a robust centralised branch to manage all test and evaluation (T&E), so that all projects have credible test results that underpin the PMO’s decision-making throughout the development and fielding of new capabilities.
