Book excerpt: In April 2007, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics [USD (AT & L)] requested the Chairman of the Defense Science Board (DSB) to establish a task force on developmental testing. A subject of concern was that although several initiatives had been implemented within the Department to stress better system engineering practices, recent history shows that poor performance during initial operational test and evaluation (IOT & E) "suggests deficiencies in developmental test & evaluation (DT & E) processes." One specific problem identified was the lack of focus on reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) during system design. The Under Secretary requested the DSB address this problem and develop recommendations to improve the Department's DT & E processes. The goal is to identify suitability problems early enough to change the system design while in development versus retrofitting it after it has performed poorly in IOT & E.