An Excel Tool to Assess Acquisition Program Risk

An Excel Tool to Assess Acquisition Program Risk

Lauren A. Fleishman-Mayer
Mark V. Arena
Michael E. McMahon
Copyright Date: 2013
Published by: RAND Corporation
Pages: 28
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt5vjwd6
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  • Book Info
    An Excel Tool to Assess Acquisition Program Risk
    Book Description:

    Implementing risk management principles for large defense acquisition programs is a priority for the U.S. defense acquisition community. To assist decisionmakers responsible for identifying major weapons programs’ risks, RAND developed a methodology, an Excel risk tool (the “Assessor Tool”), and this users’ manual. The tool offers an approach to the evaluation of system integration risk for defense staff assessors.

    eISBN: 978-0-8330-8459-0
    Subjects: Technology, History

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-ii)
  2. Preface
    (pp. iii-iv)
  3. Table of Contents
    (pp. v-vi)
  4. Figures and Tables
    (pp. vii-viii)
  5. Acknowledgments
    (pp. ix-x)
  6. Abbreviations
    (pp. xi-xiv)
  7. CHAPTER ONE Introduction
    (pp. 1-2)

    On May 22, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (WSARA) to improve program costs and schedules associated with the delivery of major weapon systems. Some of the oversight changes called for by WSARA depend on a program team’s ability to measure and manage the various risks associated with system integration (SI). Because SI may be influenced by all elements of the acquisition process, there exists a wide range of sources for SI risk. At any point, problems with hardware or software, design maturity, timely funding, test plan execution and personnel, facilities, and supplier capabilities...

  8. CHAPTER TWO User Manual for Assessor Tool
    (pp. 3-10)

    The Assessor Tool (Version 1.0) described in this document can be used in its existing application for assessing a weapon systems acquisition program’s integration risk, as well as adapted for other programs and compliance risk assessments. This chapter provides step-by-step instructions to perform both of these functions. It assumes that users have read the main report (Fleishman-Mayer, Arena, and McMahon, 2013) and therefore does not provide detailed definitions of terms such as “secondary questions” or “relevant artifacts.”

    This section contains step-by-step instructions for a user of the existing integration risk Assessor Tool. The instructions will lead the user through an...

  9. CHAPTER THREE Conclusion
    (pp. 11-12)

    This document presented the User Manual for the Assessor Tool, which can be used to facilitate an OSD-level information-based risk assessment for acquisition or other major programs. A complementary report describing the methodology behind the tool and its applications is available as RR-262-OSD,A Risk Assessment Methodology and Excel Tool for Acquisition Programs(Fleishman-Mayer, Arena, and McMahon, 2013). The tool includes a generalizable form of the Assessor Tool as well as the integration risk Assessor Tool provided as an example application. The reproducible and documented tool for integration risk assessment may be considered for program office reporting to meet WSARA...

  10. References
    (pp. 13-14)