Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2554-8. First, know what you are filling: Program Peculiar Specifications. The document is titled DD Form 2554-8, TDP Option Selection Worksheet, Program Peculiar Specifications, December 1989.
Your second step is the edition, not stated, listed as not stated. Your third is scope. Because the number carries a DD prefix, you use the same blank as every other military department and defense agency; no service-specific version exists for you to hunt down.
After that, turn to timing. The requirement comes from not stated; the form is maintained by not stated. Local implementing instructions fill in the dates, so check with the office that will receive your copy.
Last in this stage, choose your method: complete it on screen, or print the blank form and fill it out in pen. The sections below take each route step by step.
Now fill it in. Work from the top of the page downward, and do not jump ahead — the identifying block comes first, the substance of your entry second, the certification last. Later boxes often depend on what you put at the top.
Before your first entry, look at the corner of the page and compare the printed date with not stated. If they do not match, stop and download again. Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
Fill every box as you come to it. If an item does not apply, enter N/A — an empty field looks like an oversight, and the form comes back to you. Watch the date fields especially: use the format the form specifies, not your habitual one.
When you reach a Privacy Act Statement, read it before you continue. It tells you the legal authority for collecting your information, what the Department does with it, who else may see it, and whether you have to answer at all. That last point is worth knowing before you supply personal identifiers, not after.
Sign only after every other entry is complete. Use ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, in a reader that handles it — on an electronic one. A typed name satisfies neither method. Enter the date next to it before you close the file.
Review before you submit. Look for a superseded edition, blank mandatory fields, illegible writing, dates in the wrong format, and an unsigned or undated certification.
For questions about a specific entry, check the form's own instructions, and if that does not settle it, open not stated. The directive controls where they differ.
Download the form
Step one is picking the format. You have PDF to choose from, across 1 pages, with approximately 31 fields to complete.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
Prefer typing over writing. Your form will likely be scanned and emailed onward, and typed text reproduces at every stage while pen strokes fade or blur. When you do write, print in capitals so the receiving clerk can read it.
Handle xfdl in two steps. First confirm you have IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or a compatible reader on your machine; ordinary pdf software will report the file as broken. Once the viewer is running, download and fill the form.
You will not be charged for any of these; the whole set is free. Before you start entering data, save the file to your computer and open it there. Fields behave far more reliably in a desktop reader than in a browser preview.
What the form asks for
- A. Contract number.
- B. Exhibit/attachment number.
- C. CLIN.
- D. CDRL data item number.
- 1. Item, process or material.
- 2. Specification type per mil-std-490. Press space bar to mark X in one block only of type A, B (1)-(5), C(1)(a) - (4), D, or E
- 3. Form. X first box if form 1a, second box if form 1b, third box if form 2, or fourth box if form 3.
- 4. Associated documents per mil-std-490. a. Document. (1) X if specification change notice.
- (2) X if engineering change proposals.
- (3) X if specification revision pages.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- (4) X if changes to general specification for ships of the U.S. Navy.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- (5) X if software top level design document.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- (6) X if software detailed design document.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- (7) X if interface design document.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- (8) X if database design document.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- b. CDRL data item number.
- 5. Deliverable product. a. X if Originals (masters).
Now that it is complete, send it where not stated or your local procedure says it goes. Before you do, make yourself a copy — scan it or save the file elsewhere. It costs you nothing and saves you the whole exercise if the original goes missing.
Should you need a related form, look it up by its number. The DD sequence is Department-wide, which makes your search simple: no service qualifier, no branch-specific variant to track down.
Be careful when a procedure pairs this form with a service form. Read the prefix, not just the digits. Service forms answer to a service proponent, while DD forms answer to not stated or an equivalent Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Grabbing the wrong prefix gets you a form that has nothing to do with your task.
Plan to repeat this step whenever the form comes up again. Revisions follow directive changes, changes in what data is collected, and updates to notice language. Since nobody notifies you, check not stated at download and you have covered it.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2554-8?
- DD Form 2554-8, TDP Option Selection Worksheet, Program Peculiar Specifications, December 1989
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?