Best Project Management and Systems Engineering Practices in the Preacquisition Phase for Federal Intelligence and Defense Agencies

Abstract

The analysis of several government defense and intelligence agency large-scale acquisition programs that experienced significant cost and schedule growth shows that several critical factors need to be addressed in the preacquisition phase of the acquisition cycle. These include overzealous advocacy, technology readiness levels, life-cycle cost, schedule details, requirements maturity, acquisition and contract strategy, program office personnel tenure and experience, risk management, systems engineering, and trade studies. The results of this study–which incorporated data from industry responses, government and industry executive interviews, numerous studies, and reports–indicate that early preacquisition activities executed in a rigorous fashion can significantly reduce the risk of cost and schedule growth. In this paper, the root causes of the cost and schedule growth are discussed as well as techniques and alternatives to improve program performance.

Issues in Front-End Decision Making on Projects

“…The importance of quality at entry has been emphasised in many studies, as noted in Morris (2009), Miller and Lessard (2001), Flyvbjerg et al (2003) and Meier (2008). The World Bank gave a similar message in a study based on a review of 1,125 of its projects that were evaluated between 1991 and 1994, concluding that projects with adequate or better identification, preparation and appraisal had an 80% rate, against 25% for projects that were deficient in all these aspects, and that the quality of preparation and appraisal had significantly more influence on satisfactory performance than key country macro-economic variables, external factors, or government considerations (World Bank, 1996).…”

The trajectory of project management: why EPOS is important

“…In the early twenty-first century, several other studies of a similar nature were published such as those by Miller and Lessard (2000), Flyvbjerg et al (2003), Grün (2004), and Meier (2008) as well as the GAO (2006aGAO ( , 2006b and NAO (2004NAO ( , 2005aNAO ( , 2005b. These led to such an expansion of the field that I gave it a new name-'the management of projects' (Morris, 1994).…”

Making a case for adoption of project management methodology for capital works projects in Australian local governments

“…Another cause of failure of the adoption of PMMs in a local government is the people and the culture of the organization (Crawford & Helm 2009;Meier 2008). Expanding on the people aspect, Payne (1993) has identified two most common problems that functionally structured organizations encounter in introducing formal PM methods and practices.…”