Test Whether the System Runs After the Builders Rotate Out
The Sustainment Tail Test
Companion to You Are Not the Warfighter · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this before a team integrates a system. Use it again before any builder leaves. The test shows whether the system can keep running after every builder has rotated. Worked in “Plan Sustainment Before the People Who Built the System Rotate Out.”
The Sustainment Tail Test: seven questions, each with an owning organization.
| Question | Answer, and where it’s held | Owning organization (never a person) | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Who maintains it after every current builder has rotated? | |||
| 2. What survives them, and where is it held? (Specification, interface documentation, source and build pipeline, bill of materials with firmware versions, design files, test cards, known failure modes; in a registry, depot, or repository, never a group chat or a personal laptop.) | |||
| 3. Can someone who never met the builders rebuild, repair, and re-certify it from what survives? (The cold rebuild: prove it once.) | |||
| 4. Who owns the accounts, licenses, and authorizations, and when does each expire? | |||
| 5. What does a year of sustainment cost, and which money pays for it? | |||
| 6. Is it registered where a sister unit can find it? | |||
| 7. What is its retirement date or trigger? |
Record the cold rebuild: the date, who did it, and whether it worked. The test passes only when every row names an organization and the cold rebuild worked. A row that names a person fails when that person moves.