The CDI has a good review of the process, which gained much of its currency in missile defense, and has spread like Athlete’s Foot to infect the US defense procurement process.

Basically, the project is never done, and never needs to meet requirements, because there is always a “spiral” upgrade that takes care of some short coming.

The full report is a PDF, though the summary linked to is not.

I encountered this worthless bullsh%$ while working FCS.