If there is a better example of a procurement system run amok than that of the United States military, I would love to see it. The U.S. armed forces seem incapable of acquiring even the simplest items without turning the process into a money-waster, overpaying, or not buying the right thing in the first place.

But the Pentagon has no monopoly on complex and seriously messed-up procurement systems. Businesses around the world have these issues, and so do government organizations. That is why this book, Toward Affordable Systems II, is of interest well beyond the narrow confines of the military. In it, a group of analysts led by Brian Chow has developed a model for managing long-range procurement in the face of an uncertain environment.

Granted, this is not light summer beach pleasure reading, but if you deal with the issues involved in buying capital goods for large government organizations or complex, global businesses, this represents your state of the art.