operations | The Contracting Education Academy

December 4, 2019 By cs

New case studies highlight the importance of federal program management

Nearly three years after being signed into law, the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act (PMIAA) exists to address an urgent need within the U.S. federal government.

In October 2019, PMI and the Partnership for Public Service hosted “Delivering on Your Mission: What PMIAA Means for Effective Execution,” a timely event focused on how the PMIAA can help improve federal project and program management capabilities and performance.

With agencies and their program management improvement officers (PMIOs) tasked with delivering complex and diverse streams of benefits to citizens — from disaster relief to Social Security payments to investments in medical research, new technologies and state-of-the-art defense system — strong project and program management capabilities and practices can improve outcomes and drive effective execution throughout the federal government.

“PMIAA has the potential to transform how federal agencies deliver their missions,” said Tina Sung, vice president with the Partnership for Public Service. “It was clear during our recent event that PMIOs from across government are committed to meeting the spirit of this law, implementing it effectively and using it to amplify their agencies’ impact.”

At the event, PMI released a capstone report, “PMIAA: Strengthening the Government Delivery Foundation,” and a series of case studies highlighting how agencies and PMIOs are leveraging resources and partners inside and outside of government to help accelerate, validate and accomplish their missions.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/opinions/2019/11/08/new-case-studies-highlight-the-importance-of-federal-program-management/

June 10, 2015 By AMK

Pentagon trying to make its $400 billion fighter jet cheaper to fly

As the F-35’s expected price tag settles around $165 million per plane, DoD is trying to trim the much larger operations-and-maintenance bills to come.

The Pentagon, which has spent the last four years lowering the purchase price of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is now taking aim at the costs of flying it.

The headline-grabbing $400 billion price tag for developing and buying 2,443 U.S.F-35s is less than half the cost of operating, maintaining, and upgrading all of those jets for the next half-century. In March estimates, various Pentagon offices put the total of those expenses at $859 billion and $1 trillion.

Top program officials met this week with executives from the companies that are building the F-35. The annual summit had a new venue — Norway, not the jet’s Fort Worth assembly line — and a fresh agenda: having largely moved beyond nagging design and production problems, the group discussed the future of the world’s most expensive weapons program.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/management/2015/05/pentagon-trying-make-its-400-billion-fighter-jet-cheaper-fly/114037

July 25, 2014 By AMK

Government’s biggest failures: 2001-2014

With scandals at agencies ranging from the IRS to the Veterans Affairs Department fresh in the public’s mind, a longtime scholar of federal management has published a new assessment of government’s failures since 2001.

In the paper, called A Cascade of Failures: Why Government Fails, and How to Stop It, Paul C. Light, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at New York University, examines 41 stories that resonated with the public in a major way, using the Pew Research Center’s News Interest Index as a yardstick. The nonpartisan index, which has been published since 1986, attempts to measure how closely Americans are following stories covered by news organizations.

“Federal failures have become so common that they are less of a shock to the public than an expectation,” Light writes. At the same time, he adds, “I did not write this paper as yet another cudgel against ‘big government.’ As I have long argued, the federal government creates miracles every day, often in spite of tighter budgets, persistent criticism and complex missions.”

Light concludes in the study that government failures have been increasing over time, from an average of 1.6 per year from 1986 to 2001 to 3 per year after that.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2014/07/governments-biggest-failures-2001-2014/88678/

For the full list of 41 failures Light assessed, click here.

Nearly three years after being signed into law, the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act (PMIAA) exists to address an urgent need within the U.S. federal government.

As the F-35’s expected price tag settles around $165 million per plane, DoD is trying to trim the much larger operations-and-maintenance bills to come.

Search this Website