EVM Terminology Archives - Page 6 of 17

EVM: Is DCMA A Contractor’s “Friend or Foe?”

By Robert “Too Tall” Kenney / August 15, 2018 / CAP, CAR, DCMA, Defense Contract Management Agency, EAC, EVM, EVM Consulting, EVMS

CAP, CAR, DCMA, Defense Contract Management Agency, EAC, EVM, EVM Consulting, EVMS

Is DCMA A Contractor’s “Friend or Foe?”

I’ll answer this provocative question now. DCMA, local and headquarters, are an EVM contractor’s “friend” with remarkable, but not unlimited, patience. When required, DCMA can become the contractor’s “tough love” friend.

DCMA and the contractor share the same interests – successful contract performance. DCMA is part of a triad that includes the Government’s program team, the contractor’s program team and their DCMA counterparts.

The title “Defense Contract Management Agency” reminds me of “grilled cheese sandwich” – the recipe and the product are in the name – “contract management” leads to well managed contracts.

EAC Vignette – Part One:

Contractor A has learned that their collocated DCMA has concerns about the company’s EAC process and resulting declared EACs. The company has learned that a Level III CAR on GL # 27 is being considered. Contractor A’s senior management decides to replace their EVM Core Leader with “new blood” to improve the company’s “relationship” with DCMA and avoid a Level III CAR.

Contractor A’s new EVM leader meets with her team and with the program managers that have an EVM contractual requirement. Company A’s new EVM leader is told that DCMA’s EAC concerns are a new issue. The company’s new EVM leader asks to meet with her DCMA counterpart to discuss their GL # 27 concerns, and to present a draft of a Corrective Action Plan (CAP).

During the meeting with DCMA’s EVM leader she mentions that the EAC concerns were a surprise to the company. The company’s new EVM leader briefs her draft CAP to her DCMA counterpart.

After the draft CAP has been briefed, the DCMA EVM leader comments, “your draft CAP is a good start. After I have time to fully digest your draft CAP I will send my comments and suggestions. As for being surprised by our EAC concerns, here is a file with 3+ years of letters, emails, meeting minutes from DCMA to your company outlining our continuing and growing concerns with your company’s EAC process.”

EAC Vignette – Part Two:

DCMA issued a Level III Corrective Action Request (CAR) to the contractor and is considering withholdings as an incentive for the company to quickly improve their EAC processes.

As promised, the DCMA EVM leader sent the following note to the company’s new EVM leader:

“I sent your draft GL # 27 CAP to my team for their comments and recommendations. My team’s key recommendations are:

1). Identify the weaknesses in your existing EAC processes. For each weakness, identify a corrective action. As much as possible, “mistake proof” your new processes. You should consider a review of several 100% complete contracts, and “replay” those contracts month-by-month using your new EAC processes to test their effectiveness.

2). As noted in our CAR, the company is required to report progress on the Corrective Action Plan (CAP). You should treat your CAP as a program. At a minimum, you should have an IMS and use appropriate earned value techniques to measure progress.

3). A sister division in your parent corporation, has a very mature and effective EAC process. You should considering asking for their assistance as you develop your CAP and begin its execution.

4). If you have questions as you execute your CAP, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If I don’t know the answer to your question, I’ll find someone that does know the answer and will share it with you.”

Personal Observations:

Based on my 32 years as an employee of defense contractors, and 7 years in earned value consulting, I offer the following:

1). DCMA “local” knows your company much better than you might think.

2). DCMA “headquarters” has knowledge and insight into many companies. From DCMA’s website: “We are the independent eyes and ears of DoD and its partners, delivering actionable acquisition insight from the factory floor to the front line …. around the world.”

3). A CAR from DCMA informs the company of “what” needs corrected but not “how” to correct the issue. That said, DCMA knows what will or will not work. Maintain a dialogue with DCMA.

4). “Compliance” is a lower bound for performance. DCMA will not object if a company decides to improve well beyond mere compliance.

5). Please consider the possibility that what may appear to be a “new” problem for your company, may have already been solved by another company. Find who has already solved your “new” problem. Ask for help.

DCMA will never be a foe. Never.

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Summary Level Planning Packages (SLPPs) Misnomer and Alias

By Humphreys & Associates / May 1, 2018 / EVM Consultant, EVMIG, Summary Level Planning Packages (SLPPs)

EVM Consultant, EVMIG, Summary Level Planning Packages (SLPPs)

Origins

One of the confusing terms in the world of Earned Value terminology is “Summary Level Planning Packages” or SLPPs. The term first appeared in Section 1 of the Earned Value Management Implementation Guide (EVMIG), published in 1996 which read:

Summary Level Planning Packages (SLPP) – “When it is clearly impractical to plan authorized work in control accounts, budget and work should be identified to higher WBS or organizational levels for subdivision into CAs at the earliest opportunity.” At this time, EIA-748 was still in draft form.

When 748-1998 was released, the SLPP reference was included with a slight modification to its use being limited to; “work scope for business reasons, is not yet allocated to responsible control accounts”.

With that being said, the term was never specifically included in the EVMS Guidelines (neither the original 35 criteria nor the initial 32 EIA Standard Guidelines)! The concept itself was again put forth in 748-B where the title changed to “Higher Level Account”, but the SLPP was still not referenced. With 748-C, the same phrasing is found. Throughout this time, Guideline 8 has not changed, where it continues to say (underlines added):

“Budget for far-term efforts may be held in higher-level accounts until an appropriate time for allocation at the Control Account level.”

Higher Level Accounts

The term was “Higher Level Accounts” (HLA if you prefer an acronym), and that is the only mention in any of the Guidelines themselves. In their 25 June 2015 Cross Reference Checklist, however, the DCMA felt the need to clarify the term in several spots:

8.a.(2) Higher level WBS element budgets (where budgets are not yet broken down into control account budgets) also known as a Summary Level Planning Package?

b. Does the Contractor’s system description or procedures require that the sum of control accounts, Summary Level Planning Package (SLPP) budgets, Undistributed Budget(UB), and Management Reserve(MR) reconcile and trace to the CBB or Negotiated Contract Cost (NCC) plus the estimated cost of AUW) for any recognized OTB?
b. Are ETCs developed at the work package, planning package, and Summary Level Planning Package (SLPP) levels, or where resources are identified if lower than the work package level?
j. Are VACs calculated and analyzed with corrective actions at the control account (at a minimum) and Summary Level Planning Package (SLPP) levels?

Created to Help

The term “Higher Level Accounts (HLA)” was created to help contractors comply with the government requirement to distribute budgets from Undistributed Budget (UB) within two full accounting periods after definitization of the contract value. Many contractors on large, long term contracts were struggling with distributing work and budget for far-term effort about which they were not yet sure where or by whom the work would be performed.

The government allowance to create Higher Level Accounts enabled the contractors to “distribute” the scope and budget to an account – as though it were a Control Account – where someone would “tend it” until the contractor could better define where and by whom the work would be performed. While in the HLA status, the assigned higher-level manager (the PM or a functional manager designee) would be responsible to ensure the time phasing of the high-level budget was current and that the EAC for the work in the HLA was up to date (rates and time phasing ). Once the contractor determined the appropriate Control Account Manager responsible for getting the work performed, the scope, schedule, and budget in the HLA would be transferred (distributed) from the Higher Level Account to the Control Account.

Misnomer

As stated earlier, the origin of the term “Summary Level Planning Package – SLPP” is not really known, and it is really a misnomer:

It is not a Summary Level (i.e., other Control Accounts do not summarize into it).
It is really not a Planning Package (the responsible Higher Level Manager does not perform any planning for the work in the HLA – it is just a holding point until it can be distributed to, and planned by, the ultimate CAM).

This last point is where some people become confused. Being called a “Planning Package,” some people think the SLPP is part of a Control Account that is at a higher level within the Control Account than a Planning Package. That is another distinction between an SLPP (HLA) and a Planning Package – an SLPP can NEVER be directly detail planned into Work Packages. The budget in an SLPP must be transferred to a Control Account for that CAM to detail plan the work as necessary over the period of performance of the Control Account.

To be fair to the CAM receiving the HLA/ SLPP scope, schedule, and budget, the project should also have a “Rolling Wave Planning” approach for the HLA/SLPP, one that is at least 30 days in advance of the normal CAM Rolling Wave Planning process. This would give the CAM time to incorporate the work and budget time phasing into the Control Account (generally in one or more Planning Packages within the Control Account) in order to then be prepared for any necessary detail planning into Work Packages as part of the normal Rolling Wave Planning process.

Final Thought

Some people do not even consider Higher Level Account to be an appropriate description since the HLA/ SLPP is essentially at the same level as the Control Account. The “Higher Level” aspect means it is assigned to a higher level manager than a Control Account Manager (CAM) for that manager to “tend to” the scope, schedule, and budget until it is distributed to a CAM.

So even though HLA is what it is, SLPP is what it has become.

Higher Level Accounts or Summary Level Planning Packages can be confusing and often an area where projects need some help. A Humphreys & Associates EVM Consultant can provide the guidance you need for your unique production or development project. Please contact us for more information.

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Program Manager / Project Manager Use of Management Reserve

By Humphreys & Associates / April 3, 2018 / Earned Value Management System Description (EVMSD), EVM Consultant, Management Reserve, Management Reserve (MR), Management Reserve Log (MRL), Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB), Program Manager, Project Manager

Earned Value Management System Description (EVMSD), EVM Consultant, Management Reserve, Management Reserve (MR), Management Reserve Log (MRL), Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB), Program Manager, Project Manager

What is Management Reserve?

Management Reserve (MR) is developed and managed by the Program Manager / Project Manager. This discussion will provide guidance for establishing and using Management Reserve to effectively manage a project.

H&A description– The standard definition of management reserve is an amount of contract budget set aside for management control purposes (known unknowns) rather than designated for the accomplishment of one or more tasks. It is not part of the performance measurement baseline (PMB) but is included in the contract budget base.

DOE guidance – The ability to establish MR allows project management to react to unforeseen in‐scope situations that arise during the life of a project. It is budget for handling project risk and in‐scope unanticipated events. Management Reserve is not a source of funding for additional work scope or for the elimination of performance variances. It is an amount of the project budget set aside for management control purposes by the contractor. Management Reserve is the contractor’s budget and provides the project manager with a budget for unplanned activities within the current project scope. Because MR is budget that is not yet associated to work scope, it is not part of the PMB.

The Earned Value Management System Description (EVMSD)

The contractor must include a clear definition of MR in the EVM SD. For clarity and consistency, the EVM SD must describe the process and list allowable conditions under which it may be approved and allocated to the control accounts managers. Management Reserve cannot be used to offset accumulated overruns or under runs. Authorized uses of it include:

Previously unrecognized tasks or realized risks consistent with the general scope of work of the contract.
Change in execution strategy (e.g., make/buy decisions).
Unexpected future internal scope growth within the currently authorized scope of the project.
Direct and indirect rate changes and currency fluctuations.
Risk and opportunity handling (not for cost or schedule variance based risks).
Work that needs to be repeated (not the result of inaccurately reported progress).
Changes to the future budget of work not yet started (e.g., subcontractor activities that are negotiated post project award).

Baseline Planning

The first step in the process the PM must accomplish is establishing the Management Reserve at the initiation of the Performance Measurement Baseline development. The project manager has authority and control of the development and use of the MR budget.

The process steps are:

Reconciling the proposal estimates with the contract award.
The project manager will establish an MR budget based on examination of the contractual scope of work. Factors affecting the MR budget establishment are high technical risk areas, complex schedule problems, or an anticipated shortage in a critical resource area such as labor, material, or support services.
Once anticipated problem areas are isolated, Negotiations between the Project Manager and the Control Account Managerscan begin to determine the Control Account Budgets. This is an iterative process during which the PM will negotiate with the CAMs:
- The budget amount to be withheld from each Control Account(based on the results from step 2 above).
  Evaluating the scope of work, risk associated with the scope of work, maturity of the concepts/ designs/ manufacturing included in the scope of work and the CAMs past performance on similar projects.
- The PM can target a specific percent of the awarded budget based on the complexity, risk and duration of the contract and the scope in each control account
The PM will negotiate and issue budgets to the CAMs and the balance remaining from the authorized budgets and the Contract Budget Base establishes the Management Reserve. Typically, this amount should be 10-15 % of the CBB value.

The next step for the PM is to track the MR budget. This is done by creating a Management Reserve Log. This can be a separate log or part of the Contract Budget Base log.

Record the original amount of MR after the control account budgets have been authorized to the CAMs.
Record changes to MR as additional budgets are authorized to increase or decrease control account values. (Management reserve is decreased to provide budget for unplanned tasks within the contract scope of work or increased whenever work is decreased along with the allocated budget.)
Use the logs to report MR activity in the monthly reports to the customer.

Project Execution

During the actual execution of the project the PM may experience various scenarios that will require the use of Management Reserve. The process to identify, evaluate and authorize MR transactions should include the following steps:

Either the CAMs or the PM can identify new tasks or realized risks to be performed or deleted in the Control Account efforts.
The affected areas in the control accounts will be identified and the impacts quantified (resources/ time …..) for the scope being modified. Tasks identified to be outside of the Control Account scope (but within the overall Project Contract scope) will be authorized and budgeted from the Management Reserve. Reductions to the Control Account scope will be authorized and the appropriate budget and scope returned to the Undistributed Budget, where the SOW is deleted and the associated budget credited to the Management Reserve.
Management Reserve transactions cannot be made without identified scope being added/reduced from the Control Account and the associated budget recorded in the MR Log and updated Work Authorization documentation issued to the Control Account Managers.
Changes in the MR log will be identified and described in the monthly customer reports. If the transaction was for an identified Risk, the Risk Registerwill also be updated and reported to the customer.
Use the Change Control process to document the rationale for all baseline budget and schedule revisions.

Acceptable Uses of Management Reserve (Examples)

Authorize additional budget/ scope for previously unrecognized tasks and identified risks that are consistent within the scope of work of the contract.
Authorize changes in execution strategy such as a make/buy modification.
May be used to offset changes in direct/ indirect rates and currency fluctuations.
May be used for Risk/ Opportunity handling (does not include Cost or Schedule Variance based risks).
May be used for work that needs to be repeated.
May be used to adjust budgets for final negotiations with subcontractors.

Unacceptable Uses of Management Reserve

Cannot be used to cover overruns.
No changes to open Work Packages without customer approval.
MR cannot be a negative value.

Project Manager Authority/ Responsibility

Management Reserve belongs to the Project Manager.
The PM is responsible for controlling MR transactions.
The PM may or may not allocate MR based on the assessment of the CAMs requests and availability of MR balance.
The PM is responsible to ensure that all MR transactions are documented, reported, and traceable.

Summary

Management Reserve is a critical part of the PM’s toolkit. It allows the PM some flexibility in planning for Risks and Opportunities, and for required changes that are in scope to the contract but were not identified in the original baseline planning. The company’s EVM SD is the primary guide the PM should use in determining which MR requests are allowable and those that are not valid.

Some Data contained in this paper came from Humphreys & Associates and from DOE EVMS websites.

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EVM Consulting – Modeling & Simulation

By Humphreys & Associates / March 13, 2018 / deterministic model, Earned Value Consulting, EVM, EVM Consulting, EVMS, EVMS Modeling, EVMS Simulation, IMS, Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), Mesure Analyze Act

deterministic model, Earned Value Consulting, EVM, EVM Consulting, EVMS, EVMS Modeling, EVMS Simulation, IMS, Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), Mesure Analyze Act

Forewarned is Forearmed

Forewarned is forearmed. John Farmer, of New Hampshire, said that in a letter in 1685. But that advice is most likely biblical and very much older. No matter the source of the thought, we should take it as divine guidance if we are project managers. Maybe we should have it cut into a stone tablet, so we can share it with our team members.

Most of our work as project managers is spent in the “controlling” phase which is made up of the three steps “measure, analyze, act.” Our EVMS and IMS exist to be able to support this management function. The measuring part is done very well in our EVMS and our IMS; we know where we are and how we got there. The analyzing is equally well handled in the IMS and EVMS. Only the management task of acting is not well supported. Generally, we lack decision making support and tools.

Deterministic Path

No matter how well constructed and how healthy our IMS is, it has a deterministic path forward. The logic links between the activities are there because we expect them to be fulfilled. Indeed, if activity “B” is a finish-to-start successor to activity “A” we fully expect that at some point activity “A” will finish and will provide its output to activity “B”. That is a single path forward and it is a deterministic path. It is also a somewhat simplistic model.

Multiple Outcomes

Our management system asks us to perform root cause analysis followed by corrective action. But what if there is more than one corrective action to be taken. And worse; what if the corrective actions can have multiple outcomes with each enjoying its own probability. That means multiple choices and multiple outcomes. How would we show that in our plan? How would we analyze the multiple possible futures that such a situation presents?

Happily, there are ways to model a future without a set path. And once we have the future model, there are also ways to simulate the outcomes to give the probabilities we need to decide which actions to take. We are talking about probabilistic branching, and we are saying that we can build a probabilistic map of the future to use in making decisions; especially making decisions on corrective actions.

Take a simple example of running a test on the project. The expectation is that eventually we will pass the test. We will keep trying until we do. In the IMS deterministic model the test portion of the IMS might look like this:

Simulation

We can simulate this situation with different expected durations for the test. That is helpful information, but it does not explain or even capture what is going on in those different durations. It looks like we are just taking longer to do the testing but is that really what is happening? What is going on here? We certainly don’t show that.

In the real world, this simple model might have three potential outcomes. There might be three paths we can take to get to the point where we use the product. Each path has a time and money cost. We might run the test and find that we passed. Or we might have to stop the test for issues on the item or the test setup. We might even fail the test and must correct something about the product to improve our chances of passing a rerun. Eventually we will get to a usable product. But what do we put in our estimate and our plan? What do we tell the resources we need? What do we tell the boss? The customer?

Full Future Model

We now have a much better understanding of the future and can explain the situation. We also can simulate the situation to find out the most likely time and cost outcomes, so we can explain the future without any histrionics or arm waving.
If the issue is important enough we can build out the full future model and simulate it.

No matter how far we pursue the model of the future, having a valid model and being able to stand on solid ground are very valuable to us as project managers.

This is not to say that we should model out complex situations as a routine in the IMS. That would be impossible, or at least prohibitively costly. We are saying that when situations arise, we need to be able to use the IMS to help us make decisions.

This type of probabilistic modeling of the future is particularly useful in defining major decision points in our plan. When we reach a decision point the IMS may have multiple branches as successors but that implies we take every branch and that is not valid. Modeling each branch and its probabilities is valid. In the example below, where the milestone represents a decision point, we have shown three possible paths to take. If each were modeled out into the future with time and cost data, we should have the information we need to choose the path we wish to pursue. Without processes and tools like this, we would be flying blind.

Future Blog Posts

This discussion will be continued in future blogs to develop a better foundational understanding of the process and power of probabilistic modeling in our EVMS.

Good information sets the stage for good decisions. The IMS and the EVMS have sufficient information to help us model the pathways ahead of our critical decisions. We just need to learn to take advantage of what we have available to us.

Find out how an experienced Humphreys & Associates EVM Consultant can help you create a full future model and simulation of your most vital EVMS Systems. Contact Humphreys & Associates at (714) 685-1730 or email us.

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Project Management: Earned Value Consulting; Could You Use Some?

By Humphreys & Associates / January 15, 2018 / Earned Value Consultant, Earned Value Consulting, earned value training, EVM Consultant, evm consultants, EVM Training

Earned Value Consultant, Earned Value Consulting, earned value training, EVM Consultant, evm consultants, EVM Training

Failed Projects

A recent article discussed the results of a survey on the reasons that projects failed. The definition of failure was that the project was abandoned. Abandonment does not occur frequently in the world of government projects; especially defense projects where there should be strong “must have” needs driving the project. These projects tend to persist until completed even though the outcomes are not satisfactory. But there is a lot to learn from the list of reasons for failure.

Of the sixteen reasons listed, the top four had to do with changes to the environment that had given rise to the project. For example, changes in the company priorities was the most often cited reason for abandonment. In that same vein were issues with changing objectives and inaccurate definition of requirements. These types of failures are not topics for this blog since they do not immediately involve execution of the project.

Execution Problems

Lower on the list of those environment related reasons for failure were the ones more related to execution problems. These are of significant interest to a project management using an earned value consulting company such as Humphreys & Associates (H&A). These reasons related more to issues of poor project management that could have been corrected. In this area were reasons like “poor change management,” “inaccurate cost estimates,” “inaccurate time estimates,” and “inexperienced project management.”

The answers given in a survey situation depend very much on the mindset of the person responding. Is the reason really “inaccurate cost estimates” or should it have been “failure to execute to the estimate”? How many times have you seen a problem in execution “swept under the carpet” as being an inaccurate estimate or plan? One of these two answers points to the estimating system and process while the other points to project management. The estimates were generated; and, at some point, they were deemed to be sufficiently detailed to launch the project. If a scrubbed and blessed estimate is “inaccurate” that would still be a failure of project management. If the problem were really a failure to execute, then how easy would it be to blame the problem on poor estimates? This blog will discuss the cited failures as if they were execution failures.

Earned Value Management (EVM) Consultant Specialists

There are situations in life where the need for specialized advice is common and well accepted by us all. When your doctor is unsure of the medical issues, the doctor will send you to a specialist. The reason is obvious. The specialist has learned so much more about a specific problem and has so much experience diagnosing and treating the problem that it would be foolish not to secure the services of that specialist. In fact, it might be malpractice. A project management consultant can be thought of much like a medical specialist.

There are similar situations in business where the need for specialized knowledge is critical. Large companies tend to have in-house legal departments to cover the day-to-day legal issues and tasks that are central to their businesses. However, the need to go to outside counsel for large or unusual issues is accepted. Companies do not hesitate to engage the services of outside law firms to help them through troubled times. Project management consultants are like outside counsel.

What if there were a project management or earned value management situation you have never encountered before? A good example would be the times that H&A has been called in to help clients navigate the unhappy circumstances of needing to go over-target. Going through the over-target-baseline (OTB) or over-target-schedule (OTS) process is not a common experience. It is a tense time when careers can be on the line and the company reputation might also be at risk. It takes specialized knowledge to get it right. In some cases, it even takes the objective view of an outsider to help make the right decisions.

Specialized Knowledge

Another example of specialized knowledge being crucial is when the customer has deemed some issue on the project to be deficient. In some situations, a customer’s Corrective Action Request (CAR) can result in cost penalties and damaged reputations; possibly even worse consequences could result. Engaging the services of an EVM consultant with experience in identifying problems, building Corrective Action Plans (CAP)s, and leading or helping implementing the corrective actions is often a valuable and necessary action. Ask yourself how smart it would be to assume that those who were involved in causing the issue would be capable of creating a satisfactory solution.

These scenarios are aligned with the idea of project management consulting being something you only need in a crisis. There are other non-crisis needs for specialized support. Often H&A is engaged simply to help a client prepare a proposal. A proposal situation puts heavy demands on the company staffing levels and can require areas of specialized knowledge not available in the company. What if the company has never created a fully compliant Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) and they could use help the first time? What if there are not enough trained and experienced schedulers to work on the proposal? What if the company does not have a documented project management system?

Make or Break Opportunities

Projects can be huge and risky. They can be make-or-break opportunities to a company. Where so much can depend on good project management, smart companies recognize the need for an outside opinion and outside talent. Just like the internal legal department, the internal project management group sometimes needs to call on outside subject matter experts. While it might be obvious, let’s look at some reasons why this is true.

There are more ordinary everyday reasons to engage a project management consultant. Perhaps an organization just managed to win a new project bigger than any they have won before. In this case, they may not be ready to handle the project in terms of experience, systems, and even just talented headcount. A project management consulting company such as H&A can bring solutions to your earned value woes. It can also provide temporary training staff to get things going until the client is ready to take over.

Poor Communication

Let’s get back to the survey of reasons that projects failed. Are there issues on the list where project management consulting could have made a difference? Imagine an improved project management process and staff after a period of consulting to support creating or improving systems and training personnel?

The fifth most frequent reason for failure is “poor communication.” A good project management system with trained personnel is all about communication. Communication of plans, communication of progress, communication of issues, and communication of corrective actions are all actions required in a project management system. Quite often the problem of “poor change management,” cited as the sixth most common reason for failure, is reduced or eliminated after using the consulting services of a specialist?

What about the twelfth cited problem of “inadequate resource forecasting”? Would a well built and maintained resource-loaded Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) go a long way in providing forecasts of resource needs and the impacts of not having the resources? In fact, a proper IMS would help with several of the cited reasons for failure, such as inaccurate duration estimates. In fact, the application of a process, such as Schedule Risk Analysis (SRA), with the help of an experienced consultant can identify such issues in advance while there is still time to take action.

Earned Value Training

Disregarding the threat of failure as a motivator, the need for constant improvement should be enough reason to consider a project management consultant. We can all laugh at the time-worn clichés of “not-invented-here” or “we’ve never done it that way;” however, these are clichés for a reason. There is resistance to outside help and there is resistance to change. But outside help can be a great logjam breaker. An experienced and knowledgeable consultant can be your voice when you need someone who has, to use another cliché, “been there and done that.”

In fact, our consultants can laugh when they say they have “been there” and they have more than a T-shirt to prove it.

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Updates to the Compliance Review Series of Blogs

By Humphreys & Associates / November 20, 2017 / DCMA 8-Step Review Process, DCMA EVMS Compliance Review

DCMA 8-Step Review Process, DCMA EVMS Compliance Review

2020 Update

Humphreys & Associates has posted a 2020 update to the series of blogs discussing the DCMA Compliance Review (CR) process. “Compliance Review” is the term used for the formal EVM System review DCMA performs to determine a contractor’s compliance with the EIA-748 Standard for EVMS guidelines. This can also include, as applicable, Surveillance Reviews and Reviews for Cause (RFC).

DCMA used to follow a 16 Step compliance review process. This changed to an 8 Step process with the release of the DCMA Instruction 208 (DCMA-INST 208) titled “Earned Value Management System Compliance Reviews Instruction.” This Instruction has been rescinded and replaced with a set of DCMA Business Practices (BP). These Business Practices split out topics that the old DCMA Instruction 208 covered in one document. Whether you are a contractor new to the EVM contracting environment or a seasoned veteran, if the Earned Value Management System (EVMS) compliance and acceptance authority is the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), these new Business Practices apply to you.

The four updated blogs include:

EVMS Compliance Review Series #1 – Prep for the DCMA Compliance Review Process. This blog presents the set of DCMA Business Practices (BP) that define the EVMS and Review process and specifically discusses Business Practice 6 “Compliance Review Execution.” It also discusses what you can expect should you need to complete the DCMA Compliance Review process through the 5 phases and 23 Steps outlined in BP6. It is critical you are able to complete each step in the process successfully the first time through to prevent delays. The best way to make sure you are prepared is to conduct one or more internal EVMS Mock Reviews, the topic for the next blog.
EVMS Compliance Review Series #2 – Conducting Internal Mock Reviews (Self Assessments). This blog discusses the importance of conducting a thorough internal review of your EVMS. You may or may not have the expertise in-house to conduct this simulation of a Compliance Review. An independent third party can help you prepare for a DCMA compliance review. The objective is to conduct the EVMS Mock Review to simulate everything DCMA will do. DCMA also expects a thorough scrub of the schedule and cost data – data traceability and integrity is essential.
EVMS Compliance Review Series #3 – Using Storyboards to Depict the Entire EVMS. Do you need a refresher on the role of storyboards in a compliance review? Storyboards can make a difference in training your personnel and explaining to the DCMA personnel how your EVMS works. Storyboards can take many forms, and if you don’t have one in place, consider starting with the flow diagrams in your EVM System Description.
EVMS Compliance Review Series #4 – Training to Prepare for Interviews. This blog highlights the importance of conducting training for your personnel, particularly the control account managers (CAMs), so they are able to complete successful interviews with DCMA personnel. H&A recommends completing a three step training process to proactively address any issues.

Help Preparing for a Compliance Review

Do you need help preparing for a DCMA compliance or surveillance review? Download the set of DCMA Business Practices and read our updated blogs so you have an idea of what is ahead. Humphreys & Associates can help you conduct a Mock EVMS Review, perform a data quality assessment, create a storyboard, or conduct EVMS interview training and mentoring for your personnel. Call us today at (714) 685-1730 or email us.

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