Guide for Using the Incremental Commitment Model (ICM) for Systems Engineering of DoD Projects

The purpose of this Guide is to enable Department of Defense (DoD) projects to better cope with their current and emerging systems engineering challenges, in the context of the recently-revised DoD Instruction 5000.02, “Operation of the Defense Acquisition System.” The definition of the Incremental Commitment Model (ICM) has been co-evolving with the redefinition of the previous DoDI 5000.2. This began with a series of work sessions in 2005 with OUSD (AT&L) personnel to clarify the nature of “spiral development” as recommended in the previous DoDI 5000.2. The redefinitions leading to the ICM were focused both on avoiding common misinterpretations of “Spiral development” and on stimulating systems engineering and acquisition practices better tuned to DoD systems of the future rather than to systems of the past.

DoD projects are increasingly encountering “tipping points” in the way their new systems are acquired, the way that existing systems are modified and integrated to form systems of systems (SoSs), and the way that systems that are part of SoSs are modified to contribute to new SoS