This is Tony Perino's doctoral dissertation for TIPP (The Institute of Public Policy, George Mason University), completed in summer of 1999 after research projects conducted in 1997 and 1998. Thomas R. Gulledge was Tony's faculty advisor. John was a member of the committee overseeing his work, and was actually the one who steered Tony toward completion of the manuscript. John got Tony to conduct the research project with college faculty members. The dissertation provided empirical evidence to support John's "Spreadthink" idea. We have Tony's full length 1999 dissertation on Rose's computer in the Byothers folder, and also a PDF file of a set of PowerPoint slide printouts to accompany the dissertation. The slide printouts are in a Spiralbound MS w cover and they are really good clear slides, easy to read, etc, should be used in any lesson plan concerning this topic. The dissertation is on Rose's computer in the Byothers folder, and also a PDF file of the shortenend (96 kb, 78 pages) version published in the archived ARQ Acquisiton Review Quarterly, Winter 2001. PP. 61-78. The dissertation was added to Warfield Digital Collection April 10, 2009. Here is the annotation from the GMU web page: Abstract :This research effort proceeded from the presumption that complexity is a matter of perspective; it resides within the observer, not the issue under investigations It is the observer's inability to grasp the interplay of multiple factors and events that lead to the perception that problems. Issues or systems are "complex." The researcher sought to find answers to the following questions: Are members of the defense systems acquisition workforce prepared to meet the demands of complexity? Study participants included highly schooled engineering- and management-orientated government employees responsible for the acquisition and life-cycle support of large-scale socio-technical defense systems costing billions of taxpayer dollars. These individuals were attending an intensive 14-week course in systems acquisition managmente at the Defense Systems Management College (DSMC). The college is considered to be the premier center for learning about management principles and the Department of Defense systems acquisition process. John N. Warfield Collection 37.28 Acquisition Review Quarterly was a publication of Defense Systems Management College (DSMC) where Tony was a faculty member. DSMC IS NOW HISTORY, its name changed to DAU Defense Acquisitions University . The ARQ quarterly has published the shortened 17 page version to the web at this URL: http://www.dau.mil/pubscats/PubsCats/AR%20Journal/arq2001/perino.pdf The ARQ at DSMC is apparently the precursor of the modern ARJ (Acquisition Research Journal) at DAU.The DAU web page uses the following citation for Tony's paper, which I found by looking in Acquisition Research Journal "Archived Publications" section: [PDF]Complexity: A Cognitive Barrier to Defense Systems Acquisition   ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT George H. (Tony) Perino  The graphical display of this model is called the 'problematique' (Warfield & Perino, 1999).  ----------------------------------- John included a copy of Tony's dissertation as part of the materials used for the July 11-15, 2007 Short Course which he taught in Sheffield, Alabama. IN April 2009 John asked about getting the Perino dissertation added to the Warfield Web page, and received a reply from David Houpt I would be happy to digitize it but because it is the work of another individual we would need to get written permission from Dr. Perino first. Do you have a way of contacting him? I guess we didnt know how to get ahold of Tony in April 2009, so the dissertation never did get on the GMU digital site, but probably could still be added if we wanted to do it. It is already in the Fenwick Library in Box 37, Folder 28 so it could be done if there were anyone still at GMU to do the scanning. Rose now has the dissertationt on the Dell computer, altogether 182 pages including front matter, I guess Tony must has sent John the PDF file sometime and we put it away and forgot it was here. R.w. updated annotation on Feb 25, 2013.