Pros
The mission matters. The DOD is the largest organization in the world. It needs help with technology. Think about the Servicemembers that can be helped and how we can make our country and our Government Better. With that in mind, DDS has been given incredible authorities to fix the technical problems throughout the Department of Defense. They’ve been given a near bottomless travel budget, top of the line computers, commercial tools, and access to any infrastructure they require. Finally, they have special hiring authorities that allows them to quickly bring in true civilian experts, at competitive salaries to do meaningful work.
Kontras
DDS lacks sufficient knowledge about how the DOD works and has not displayed an interest to learn. They are largely motivated by personal interest. Unfortunately, there’s little to no oversight from the Secretary’s office, despite the constant invocation of the SECDEF's name. DDS Leadership chooses projects and assigns teams based on personal interests which are oftentimes “science projects”. Leadership regularly moves employees in and out of projects based on how much fealty they're giving. When one employee falls out of favor, they typically ostracize them. There are no internal checks on these projects. These projects are more about currying favor than delivering results. DDS Leadership will not even consider a project unless it has Flag Officer or SES-level touchpoints. Warfighter projects are quickly abandoned because when it comes time to do the actual work of transition, funding or bureaucracy hacking, DDS Leadership balks. DDS Leadership is completely focused on optics and will regularly choose an easy wrong over a hard right. Their PR and Press calculus is often antithetical to the Department's interest and seeks largely to aggrandize themselves. The volume of press calls they do is excessive. DDS team members often learn about DDS-internal initiatives from the press or social media. DDS Leadership underperforms in meetings. First, they don't know anything about the Mission of the Department of Defense. Second, they're really not that technical. Third, they’re poor communicators and will regularly embarrass themselves and the organization through odd behavior or faux pas.