Project Lesson

Categories of Systemic Lessons

For Network Centric Warfare projects that have many interfaces and stakeholders, it is essential to have the requirements not only well understood, but to have these very well defined in the suite of Second Pass project approval documentation. This provided a solid foundation to build an executable contract.

Requirements Management

The project has refurbished an existing facility to create a first of type installation facility. The key lesson is to have a sufficient reserve of space to accommodate growth in first of type integration requirements. Having this facility where stakeholders can view progress has been invaluable.

First of Type equipment

The project has a well defined contract with clear conditions of contract that provide flexibility where it is needed. In particular, parties to the contract can agree to changes to the Government Furnished Material (GFM) by accession rather than via a formal contract change proposal, which allows far greater agility in the management of GFM and GFE requirements.

Contract Management

It is essential to ensure an adequate level of resourcing for the management of tender preparations and evaluations through a risk management based approach. This approach would have greatly assisted the project as it experienced a significant and unexpected increase to the workload.

Resourcing

During the course of the program, it was found to be essential to continue with an expanded Integrated Project Team (IPT) which had senior stakeholder representation of all groups involved, including projects delivering the platforms, technical regulatory agencies and the Capability Managers.

Governance

Considering the many stakeholder interfaces involved in the Network Centric Warfare (NCW) programs (which this project is but one), the traditional Project Management Stakeholder Group (PMSG) forum was found to be insufficient and requiring a broader NCW program focus. As a result, higher level program management oversight, which involves all key stakeholder groups, including the Capability Manager, Capability Development Group and the DMO, has proven to be an essential management forum for the project.

Governance