Improving Doe Project Performance Using the Dod Integrated Master Plan

Improving DOE Project Performance Using the DOD Integrated Master Plan – 12481

Glen B. Alleman, DOD Programs, Project Time & Cost and Michael R. Nosbisch, Managing Principle, Western Region, Project Time & Cost

Abstract

DOE O 413 measures a project’s progress to plan by the consumption of funding, the passage of time, and the meeting of milestones. In March of 2003, then Under Secretary, Energy, Science, Card received a memo directing the implementation of Project Management and the Project Management Manual, including the Integrated Master Plan and Integrated Master Schedule. This directive states “the integrated master plan and schedule tie together all project tasks by showing their logical relationships and any constraints controlling the start or finish of each task. This process results in a hierarchy of related functional and layered schedules derived from the Work Breakdown Structure that can be used for monitoring and controlling project progress.” This paper shows how restoring the IMP/IMS paradigm to DOE program management increases the probability of program success in ways not currently available using DOD O 413 processes alone.

Introduction

The measures of progress to plan in units meaningful to the decision maker are needed to answer the question – How Long Are We Willing to Wait before We Find out We Are Late? As recently as January of 2011 updates to DOE O 413.3B were made with focus on four philosophical goals. [3] With this 2011 directive and the 2003 memo to Robert Card (Project Management and the Project Management Manual) [1] addressing the use of Integrated Master Plans and Schedules in Section 6.5.1, the measures needed to answer this question are still not specifically stated in the most recent version of the DOE O 413 series. However, the DOD 5000.02 and Integrated Master Plan (IMP) paradigm provides the mechanism to answer the question and should be adopted by DOE. The IMP, as applied by the DOD, defines the incremental...