Project Management

Maximizing the Value from Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) Investments 

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A previous blog, How Integrated Baseline Reviews (IBRs) Contribute to Project Success, provided an overview of the purpose and scope of IBRs as well as the benefits of conducting an IBR. This blog adds to the discussion on the benefits of conducting an IBR. It reflects observations gathered from our earned value consultants while assisting clients to prepare for IBR events. 

As a reminder, IBRs provide the opportunity to verify the:

  • Contractor and the customer have a common understanding of the scope of work, technical requirements, and accomplishment criteria. 
  • Contractor has established an executable performance measurement baseline (PMB) for the entire contractual scope of work that accurately reflects how they plan to accomplish the work within the contractual period of performance, negotiated contract cost, and funding profile. 
  • Required resources have been identified and assigned to the project to accomplish the project’s objectives. For example, the staffing plan accurately reflects the sequence of work as well as resource availability and demand.  
  • Technical, schedule, and cost risks/opportunities have been identified, assessed, and captured in a risk/opportunity register. Risk mitigation actions have been incorporated into the PMB to reduce known threats to an acceptable level. This is often the most valuable component of the IBR to ensure all parties have an understanding of the risks/opportunities, assumptions, and risk mitigation or opportunity capture plans. 

Factors that Contribute to a Successful IBR

Treating an IBR as just a contractual requirement limits its value to all parties. IBRs are essential to the successful execution of any project. IBRs require a focused mindset to clearly define as well as assess the measurable benefits gained for the time and effort invested in the IBR. From our observations, contractors that defined what they expected to gain from an IBR, whether the IBR was contractually required or not, made a measurable difference in the outcomes from the IBR. The effectiveness of an IBR is contingent upon management’s commitment to excellence in implementing their EVMS and their desire to ensure they have reliable and useful data for management visibility and control. And that begins with establishing an executable PMB. 

The following list of factors often influence the perceived value of an IBR and hence the approach a contractor takes to planning and conducting their IBRs. 

  • Recognizing the relative importance of the review.
  • Defining the value or measurable benefits they expect to gain from conducting the review.
  • Well defined risk/opportunity management process. 
  • Timely and sufficient review planning and preparation.
  • Joint or collaborative planning and preparation.
  • Well defined objectives as well as entrance and exit criteria. 
  • Tailoring the IBR approach to best accomplish the review objectives.
  • Communication and expectation management.

These factors were ultimately indicative of whether the IBRs were considered value-added (retrospective assessment by the participants) based on the level of understanding, investment in or attention to, or the degree of success in implementing these factors. Based on H&A earned value consultant’s observations, the single factor that tends to drive the IBR approach is clearly defining the value the contractor expects to gain beyond what is mandatory or contractually required. 

IBR Investment Value

The term “IBR investment value” is purposefully used here. The intent is to invite you to re-assess how IBRs are viewed apart from simply meeting government agency IBR requirements. “IBR investment value” is used to mean a qualitative assessment that encapsulates the value-add or measurable benefits teams often have difficulty defining as well as to help provide the impetus and guiding direction for conducting an IBR. It has both intrinsic and extrinsic properties. 

The intrinsic value of the IBR investment resides in those specific elements of information (as identified by the customer in the form of questions or concerns) that are either exchanged, clarified, or refined through the course of discussions between the customer and performing contractor teams. This intrinsic value can be measured by how well the exchanged information supports:

  • A complete, clear and mutual understanding of the work to be accomplished.
  • The resources needed to get the work done.
  • The detailed plan to perform the work.
  • What resources are available to support the plan.
  • What’s missing or unknown that is needed to complete the work correctly and on time.
  • What risks, issues, concerns, or opportunities are associated with contractor’s concept that need to be fully considered to make the plan work. 

The extrinsic value of the IBR Investment rests wholly in the quality of the exchanges (discussions), and the resulting actions generated from the discussions. This extrinsic IBR value addresses how appropriate, rich and comprehensive the information exchanges were, and answers to questions, such as:

  • Were the discussions responsive to a list of customer information requirements and concerns? 
  • Were the right discussions held? At the right level of detail?
  • Were the right people involved in each discussion? 
  • Did the discussions provide sufficient context? Were they comprehensive? Complete?
  • Did the discussions address associated risks, issues, opportunities or other concerns? Relationships to other discussions/elements?
  • Were all the customer’s questions or concerns answered to their satisfaction?
  • Were the discussions documented to support decisions? Alternatives? Changes? Studies?

The exchanges of essential information (intrinsic value) and the quality of those exchanges (extrinsic value) when combined directly translate to the investment value achieved from the IBR. It characterizes how well the information exchanged provides both teams with the necessary details to successfully define, schedule, budget, and manage the contracted effort relative to the investment into the IBR process. A realistic, risk adjusted PMB helps to prevent schedule delays and cost overruns during project execution that often impact a contractor’s profit margins and tarnishes their credibility with their customers. 

What are the characteristics of a value added IBR approach?  

A successful approach H&A earned value consultants have observed contractors implement is a structured process corporate management actively participates in to ensure they gain the most value from all IBR events. 

This is often an outgrowth from corporate initiatives to retain top project management talent and establishing an EVMS self-governance process. It is part of a corporate culture that is committed to excellence in project management and sustaining a best in class EVMS – becoming efficiently expert at EVM. 

What are some common characteristics of their IBR approach?

  • A chartered authority or corporate team responsible for assisting project personnel with IBR events in addition to EVMS implementation, self governance, and customer surveillance events. A good practice we have seen implemented is to establish rotating members on the IBR teams from different projects as a means to pollinate best practices across projects. It also provides an opportunity to mentor top talent on track to move up to higher management positions.  
  • A standard repeatable process with defined measurable outcomes that can be tailored to the unique project requirements or objectives. This includes maintaining a set of materials for the internal IBR team to effectively plan and execute an IBR as well as to close out any action items. Examples include training materials to prepare project personnel, process description with team member roles and responsibility assignments, data call list, role based interview question forms with assessment criteria, data quality assessment materials and tools, list of data traces to be performed, schedule risk assessment tools, risk/opportunity evaluation criteria, defined assessment criteria (technical, schedule, cost, resources), in-briefing and out-briefing templates, and template to capture action items to track to closure. The corporate team is often responsible for actively maintaining the content for the IBR teams and conducting training. 
  • They place an emphasis on two components that directly impact the quality of the schedule and cost data.  This includes:
    • Well-documented data driven basis of estimates (BOEs) that can be substantiated using historical or bench-marked data with the goal of reducing expert judgement cost estimates to the lowest level possible as a risk reduction strategy.  
    • The quality of the risk/opportunity management plan and the content in the risk/opportunity register. This content directly affects the ability of all parties to gain a better understanding of the risks/opportunities and best options to mitigate a risk or capture an opportunity. A well constructed schedule is required to be able to perform schedule risk assessments (SRAs). SRAs help to identify where duration risk exists in the schedule and to determine a level of confidence in meeting major project milestones as well as the project completion date.  
  • They perform internal IBRs as a standard practice on all projects regardless of contractual requirements. This is particularly important when subcontractors are performing a substantial percentage of the work effort. The corporate team often assists Project Managers with conducting a joint IBR with major subcontractors.  

Need help establishing a corporate IBR process?

H&A earned value consultants often help clients to establish a corporate EVM council or center of excellence with defined responsibilities to ensure project personnel effectively implement their EVMS, integrate risk/opportunity management into the EVMS, as well as define and implement a standard repeatable process for IBRs and self-governance. Clients often need assistance establishing a repeatable process for conducting schedule risk assessments, an essential component of the IBR process. A defined process that clearly articulates the expected measurable outcomes from conducting IBRs is one way to ensure all parties gain the most value from the event with the end objective of ensuring a realistic and executable PMB has been established.  

Call us today to get started.  

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Formal Reprogramming: OTB or OTS Best Practice Tips

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Formal Reprogramming: OTB or OTS Best Practice Tips

As a result of an Earned Value Management System (EVMS) compliance or surveillance review, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) or DOE Office of Project Management (PM-30) may issue a corrective action request (CAR) to a contractor. H&A earned value consultants frequently assist clients with developing and implementing corrective action plans (CAPs) to quickly resolve EVMS issues with a government customer.

A recent trend our earned value management consultants have observed is an uptick in the number of CARs being issued related to over target baselines (OTB) and/or over target schedules (OTS). On further analysis, a common root cause for the CAR was the contractors lacked approval from the contracting officer to implement the OTB and/or OTS even though they had approval from the government program manager (PM).

So why was a CAR issued?  It boils down to knowing the government agency’s contractual requirements and EVMS compliance requirements.

What is an OTB/OTS and when it is used?

During the life of a contract, significant performance or technical problems may develop that impact schedule and cost performance. The schedule to complete the remaining work may become unachievable. The available budget for the remaining work may become decidedly inadequate for effective control and insufficient to ensure valid performance measurement. When performance measurement against the baseline schedule and/or budgets becomes unrealistic, reprogramming for effective control may require a planned completion date beyond the contract completion date, an OTS condition, and/or a performance measurement baseline (PMB) that exceeds the recognized contract budget base (CBB), an OTB condition.

An OTB or OTS is a formal reprogramming process that requires customer notification and approval. The primary purpose of formal reprogramming is to establish an executable schedule and budget plan for the remaining work. It is limited to situations where it is needed to improve the quality of future schedule and cost performance measurement. Formal reprogramming may be isolated to a small set of WBS elements, or it may be required for a broad scope of work that impacts the majority of WBS elements.

Formal reprogramming should be a rare occurrence on a project and should be the last recourse – all other management corrective actions have already been taken. Typically, an OTB/OTS is only considered when:

  • The contract is at least 35% complete with percent complete defined as the budgeted cost for work performed (BCWP) divided by the budget at completion (BAC);
  • Has more than six months of substantial work to go;
  • Is less than 85 percent complete; and
  • The remaining management reserve (MR) is near or equal to zero.

A significant determining factor before considering to proceed with a formal reprogramming process is the result from conducting a comprehensive estimate at completion (CEAC) where there is an anticipated overrun of at least 15 percent for the remaining work.

When an OTB is approved, the total allocated budget (TAB) exceeds the CBB, this value referred to as the over target budget. Figure 1 illustrates this.

Before Over Target Baseline
Figure 1 – Over Target Baseline Illustration

When an OTS is approved, the same rationale and requirements for an OTB apply. The planned completion date for all remaining contract work is a date beyond the contract completion date. The purpose of the OTS is to continue to measure the schedule and cost performance against a realistic baseline. The process must include a PMB associated with the revised baseline schedule. Once implemented, the OTS facilitates continued performance measurement against a realistic timeline.

Contractual Obligations

An OTB does not change any contractual parameters or supersede contract values and schedules. An OTS does not relieve either party of any contractual obligations concerning schedule deliveries and attendant incentive loss or penalties. An OTB and/or OTS are implemented solely for planning, controlling, and measuring performance on already authorized work.

Should you encounter a situation where it appears your best option is to request an OTB and/or OTS, the DoD and DOE EVMS policy and compliance documents provide the necessary guidance for contractors. It is imperative that you follow agency specific guidance to prevent being issued a CAR or your OTB/OTS request being rejected.

DoD and DOE both clearly state prior customer notification and contracting officer approval is required to implement an OTB and/or OTS. These requirements are summarized the following table.

ReferenceDoD/DCMA1DOE
RegulatoryDFARS 252.234-7002 Earned Value Management System
“(h) When indicated by contract performance, the Contractor shall submit a request for approval to initiate an over-target baseline or over-target schedule to the Contracting Officer.”
Guide 413.3-10B Integrated Project Management Using the EV Management System
6.1.2 Contractual Requirements.
“…if the contractor concludes the PB TPC and CD-4 date no longer represents a realistic plan, and an over-target baseline (OTB) and/or over-target schedule (OTS) action is necessary. Contracting officer approval is required before implementing such restructuring actions…”
Attachment 1, Contractor Requirements Document
“Submit a request for an Over-Target Baseline (OTB) or Over-Target Schedule (OTS) to the Contracting Officer, when indicated by performance.”
EVMS Compliance2Earned Value Management System Interpretation Guide (EVMSIG)3
Guideline 31, Prevent Unauthorized Revisions, Intent of Guideline
“A thorough analysis of program status is necessary before the consideration of the implementation of an OTB or OTS. Requests for establishing an OTB or an OTS must be initiated by the contractor and approved by the customer contracting authority.		EVMS Compliance Review Standard Operating Procedure (ECRSOP), Appendix A, Compliance Assessment Governance (CAG)
Subprocess G. Change Control
G.6 Over Target Baseline/Over Target Schedule Authorization
“An OTB/OTS is performed with prior customer notification and approval.”
See Section G.6 for a complete discussion on the process.
Contractor EVM SD4DCMA Business Process 2  Attachment, EVMS Cross Reference Checklist (CRC), Guideline 31.
“b. Are procedures established for authorization of budget in excess of the Contract Budget Base (CBB) controlled with requests for establishing an OTB or an OTS initiated by the contractor, and approved by the customer contracting authority?”		DOE ESCRSOP Compliance Review Crosswalk (CRC), Subprocess Area and Attribute G.6
“Requests for establishing an OTB or an OTS are initiated by the contractor and approved by the customer contracting authority.”

Notes:

  1. When DoD is the Cognizant Federal Agency (CFA), DCMA is responsible for determining EVMS compliance and performing surveillance. DCMA also performs this function when requested for NASA.
  2. Along with the related Cross Reference Checklist or Compliance Review Crosswalk, these are the governing documents the government agency will use to conduct compliance and surveillance reviews.
  3. For additional guidance, also see the DoD EVM Implementation Guide (EVMIG) , Section 2.5 Other Post-Award Activities, 2.5.2.4 Over Target Baseline (OTB) and Over Target Schedule (OTS). The EVMIG provides more discussion on the process followed including the contractor, government PM, and the contracting authority responsibilities.
  4. Your EVM System Description (SD) should include a discussion on the process used to request an OTB/OTS. The EVM SD content should be mapped to the detailed DCMA EVMS guideline checklist or the DOE Compliance Review Crosswalk (subprocess areas and attributes) line items.

Best Practice Tips

The best way to avoid getting a CAR from a government agency related to any OTB or OTS action is to ensure you have done your homework.

  • Verify your EVM SD, related procedures, and training clearly defines how to handle this situation. These artifacts should align with your government customer’s EVMS policy and regulations as well as compliance review guides, procedures, and checklists. Be sure your EVM SD or procedures include the requirement to notify and gain approval from the government PM and contracting officer, as well as what to do when the customer does not approve the OTB or OTS. Also discuss how to handle approving and managing subcontractor OTB/OTS situations; the prime contractor is responsible for these actions. Your EVMS training should also cover how to handle OTB/OTS situations. Project personnel should be aware of contractual requirements as well as your EVMS requirements and be able to demonstrate they are following them.
  • Maintain open communication with the customer. This includes the government PM as well as the contracting officer and any other parties involved such as subcontractors. Requesting an OTB or OTS should not be a surprise to them. Verify a common agreement has been reached with the government PM and contracting officer that implementing an OTB or OTS is the best option to provide visibility and control for the remaining work effort.
  • Verify you have written authorization from the government PM and the contracting officer before you proceed with implementing an OTB or OTS. You will need this documentation for any government customer EVMS compliance or surveillance review. Your baseline change requests (BCRs) and work authorization documents should provide full traceability for all schedule and budget changes required for the formal reprogramming action.

Does your EVM SD or training materials need a refresh to include sufficient direction for project personnel to determine whether requesting an OTB or OTS makes sense or how to handle OTB/OTS situations? H&A earned value consultants frequently help clients with EVM SD content enhancements as well as creating specific procedures or work instructions to handle unique EVMS situations. We also offer a workshop on how to implement an OTB or OTS .  Call us today at (714) 685-1730 to get started.

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New IPMDAR DID and Implementation Guide

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ALERT- New IPMDAR DID and Implementation Guide

The New Integrated Program Management Data and Analysis Report (IPMDAR) Data Item Description (DID) and Implementation Guide

On March 12, 2020, the Defense Department (OUSD/AAP) instituted the new Integrated Program Management Data and Analysis Report (IPMDAR), issuing the Data Item Description (DID) Number: DI-MGMT-81861B.
The IPMDAR is to be used for solicitations and RFPs for contracts with an EV reporting Requirement starting from March 12, 2020 forward. The IPMDAR can also be applied to modified contracts or to existing contracts (under the old IPMR or CPR requirements), but this has to be through a bi-lateral agreement (Government Program Office and Contractor).

Significant Change

This IPMDAR is a significant change from the previous iterations, the Integrated Program Management Report (IPMR) and the old Contract Performance Report (CPR). The IPMDAR has dispensed with the delivery of physical reports (Formats 1 – 7 of the old IPMR/ CPR), instead now requiring contractors to provide three (3) specific electronic data sets:

  • The Contract Performance Dataset (CPD)
  • The Schedule, comprised of
    • The Native Schedule File and
    •  The Schedule Performance Dataset (SPD)
  • The Performance Narrative Report, comprised of
    • The Executive Summary and
    • The Detailed Analysis Report

The DID states: “The IPMDAR’s primary purpose to the Government is to reflect current contract performance status and the forecast of future contract performance.”

Integrated Program Management Data Analysis Report (IPMDAR) Implementation & Tailoring Guide

Implementation & Tailoring Guide

To help expedite the adoption of the New IPMDAR, on May 21, 2020, the AAP office also issued the 87-page Integrated Program Management Data Analysis Report (IPMDAR) Implementation & Tailoring Guide:
“This guide covers the application of the DID, how to tailor the DID in the Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL), and clarification on the intent of the DID.”

Interesting Features

The IPMDAR has introduced some interesting features that are clarified in the Guide:

  • The default reporting is at the Control Account, but there is the option to have Work Package Level reporting (negotiated item)
  • Reporting is by Hours and Elements of Cost (EOCs) (for either the CA or WP level)
  • Time-phased Future Baseline (BCWS) and ETC Forecast (for either CA or WP level)
  • Best Case/Worst Case/Most Likely EACs reported by hours and dollars
  • The Native Schedule is a direct export from the contractor’s scheduling tool
  • The SPD must match the CA or WP level negotiated
  • The Government may have any subcontractors provide the IPMDAR directly to the Government
    • Even if this is required, the subcontractors must still provide the IPMDAR data to their prime contractor
  • The IPMDAR reporting components must be delivered to EVM-CR not later than 16 business days after a contractor’s accounting period
    • Incremental deliveries may be authorized, but all the items must be in NLT the 16th business day and the incremental deliveries are negotiated. A potential example is IMS by third working day after close-of-month, the raw data by fifth working day, and format 5 narrative by the sixteenth working day.
  • Historical Contract Performance Data – The Government may request this “time-phased historical data from contract award” in place of the normally provided CPD (typically no more than annually).

Applicability

IPMDAR Applicability:

  • IPMDAR is intended to be applied completely (i.e., not tailored) for cost or incentive contracts ≥ $20M – unless tailoring is specified within the DID and coordinated with the Service/ Agency EVM Focal Point.
  • If EVM reporting is required on contracts less than $20M, tailoring is more flexible, BUT the Native Schedule and Performance Narrative Report are recommended.
  • IPMDAR typically not required on FFP.

Humphreys & Associates, Inc. can help you properly implement the new IPMDAR requirements, please contact us at (714) 685-1730

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Preventing a Communications Failure

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US Army Helicopter

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

From the movie “Cool Hand Luke”, you would probably remember the famous line, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week….”

Ask people who work on programs and projects, “From your experience, what are the top 10 reasons that projects fail?”  You will nearly always find, at the top of the list, the cause as being one of poor communications. That’s right, failure to communicate, pure and simple. But maybe not so pure and not so simple.

Establish a Communications Plan

There are so many dimensions to communication that it is advisable, even necessary, to establish a communications plan. Think about all the topics we need to communicate; the list is mighty: goals, schedules, budgets, product requirements, status, problems, successes, forecasts, roadblocks, directions, and so on. So, it makes sense that we should take time to define the communications process and actions in our communications plan.

Assuming we are about to undertake a new project rather than inject ourselves into an ongoing one, we should consider the most natural first step in preventing a communications failure. Just as we must define the product requirements, we should also define the requirements for communications through an analysis. That analysis should be rigorous and should cover all apparent aspects of communications.

  • What do we need to communicate?
  • Who are the providers and the receivers of various communications?
  • What are the form and format for the communication?
  • What are the frequencies required for these communications?

Such a requirements analysis could result in a communications compliance matrix that lists the requirement and provides the method by which the requirement will be satisfied.

Formal and Informal Communication

Two major subsets of communications could be the formal and the informal. To start considering the formal we could go to the contract the Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) and the many requirements for plans, reports, and other deliverables that are forms of communications. The contract could be the root of a large tree that grows level-by-level. For example, the contract might have the Statement-of-Work (S0W) that tells us to use the systems engineering approach and a CDRL item to provide a System Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) in which another level of communication is revealed. On major contracts the SEMP is but one of several plans that are often required and should be extremely useful in defining the communications plan. The totality of these plans is comprehensive and very detailed.

EVMS Structure

Of interest to us here in this blog is the requirement to manage the program using Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS). A properly implemented EVMS can be the key to avoiding many of the problems of communications that are rolled up into the generic problem of “poor communications.” EVMS is one for the formal requirements that can embody wide ranging forms of communications. In the EVMS we will communicate:

  • Goals for scope, schedule, and budget. These are in various artifacts within the EVMS and provided to the stakeholders. Goals are the topic of the Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) to the extent that the probability of meeting the goals is assessed. Goals are clear when you have an Earned Value Management System.
  • Structure for the project work, people, and resources. EVMS requires a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to formally define and decompose the work. That means it is open and clear to all on the project what must be done top to bottom and by whom it will be done.

Integrated Master Schedule

Timing for work is established in the comprehensive Integrated Master Schedule (IMS). The IMS, when properly built and coded, provides deep insight into the time plans for the project and the relationships among the players. Topics such as “external dependencies” might have once been an obscure bit of knowledge but in the IMS these are clearly defined, and the logic shows what is dependent on these external inputs to the project.

The IMS communicates the milestones that are to be achieved. Vertical integration from the work tasks to the milestones provides the links that communicate the contributors to any major event. We know what and when we must reach a certain capability, and, with the IMS, we know how we will get there and who will carry us to that goal.

Work Authorization Document

The control account Work Authorization Document (WAD) provides a formal documentation of the baseline agreement on scope, schedule, and budget for the managerial subsets of the total project work. Carving out these manageable sections of work and making formal communication of the goals and responsibilities provides a detailed communication and acceptance for the project goals and the responsibility for their accomplishment. It would be nearly impossible to get lost in the well documented baseline of an EVMS managed project.

Measuring Progress

The status of our project is known by measuring our progress and reporting it formally; these are cornerstones of the EVMS.

  • What should we be doing?
  • What are we doing?
  • Are we meeting our scope, schedule, and spending goals?
  • Where are the problems?
  • What are the root causes of the problems? The impacts?

Communicating all of these up and down the hierarchies and even to the customer provides what should be open and clear communication. The generic complaint of “poor communication” often means “I was surprised.” There should be no surprises in a well run EVMS program.

Future Outcomes

Perhaps the most important thing to communicate is the future outcome. Based on our plans and our status, we are always making projections for the potential outcomes of our project from within our EVMS. The forecast for timing is contained within the IMS. The forecast for spending is contained within the Estimate to Complete (ETC). Each period we update out view of the future and analyze what that means. We use the analysis to undertake corrective action plans that have the intended effect of getting us back on track.

Summary

So, in summary, you should see that poor communications of the items that are within the purview of the program management system (EVMS) should not happen. The EVMS should be one the main pillars of communications plans and processes to prevent a communications failure. The outcome of the program might still be less than desired, but the outcome should have been foreseen and discussed many times within the communications engendered by the EVM System. We should know what we need to do, how we are doing, and where we will end up; and those are all things we need to communicate.

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