Business Commons^™

Cost Analysis Reform: Where Do We Go From Here? A Delphi Study Of Views Of Leading Experts, Thomas W. Lamb

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DOD) has faced many fiscal challenges in recent years, and these challenges have driven cost saving initiatives across all services and career fields. Many improvement initiatives or new policies aimed at better estimating, controlling, and reducing costs have been initiated to meet fiscal challenges. The senior leaders within the cost analysis workforce are faced with the challenge of managing change within their organizations to improve cost analysis processes and practices, while continuing to provide key decision support in the form of ongoing quality cost estimates.

This purpose of this research is to generate applicable research thrust …

Predicting Cost Growth Using Programs Reviews And Milestones For Dod Aircraft, Scott J. Kozlak

Theses and Dissertations

Past research shows predicting cost growth is an important topic with DoD systems. Researchers have attempted to predict total program cost growth as well as identify predictors of program cost growth. Our research addresses this through examining cost growth at reviews and milestones along an aircrafts schedule. We assess cost growth factors at four major reviews, Critical Design Review, First Flight, Development Test and Evaluation End, and Initial Operating Capability. The first portion of the analysis focuses on identifying cost growth factors and percent of total cost growth at the four program reviews. The second portion identifies predictors of cost …

Earned Value Reporting On Agile Software Development Programs Within The Department Of Defense, Elizabeth G. Hodson

Theses and Dissertations

The correct measurement of earned value on agile software development programs has recently been identified as a concern by software developers implementing agile development methods. This research attempts to address the difficulties in reporting earned value on agile development programs, and the differences between the measures of completion in agile development versus earned value reporting. The major difference was identified to be in translating between the work originally planned and the work that was “recently” planned as part of the agile development process. This difference, if not transparent, leads to different measurements of earned value and inconsistent reports of a …

Determining The Optimal Work Breakdown Structure For Government Acquisition Contracts, Brian J. Fitzpatrick

Theses and Dissertations

The optimal level of Government Contract Work Breakdown Structure (G-CWBS) reporting for the purposes of Earned Value Management was inspected. The G-Score Metric was proposed, which can quantitatively grade a G-CWBS, based on a new method of calculating an Estimate At Completion (EAC) cost for each reported element. A random program generator created in R replicated the characteristics of DOD program artifacts retrieved from the Cost Analysis Data Enterprise (CADE) system. The generated artifacts were validated as a population, however validation at the demographic combination level using an artificial neural network was inconclusive. Comparative WBS forms were created for a …

Predicting Schedule Duration For Defense Acquisition Programs: Program Initiation To Initial Operational Capability, Christopher A. Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

Accurately predicting the most realistic schedule for a defense acquisitions program is an extremely difficult task considering the inherent risk and uncertainties present in the early stages of a program. We use a multiple regression analysis to predict schedule duration in a defense acquisition program. The prediction scope of our research is limited to predicting schedule duration from program initiation to initial operation capability (IOC).We use the data from 56 programs across all services, which was acquired from a SAR database created by RAND. We were able to achieve an R2 of 0.429 and an Adjusted R2 of 0.384 in …

The Influence Of Operational Resources And Activities On Indirect Personnel Costs: A Multilevel Modeling Approach, Bradley C. Boehmke, Alan W. Johnson, Edward D. White, Jeffery D. Weir, Mark A. Gallagher

Faculty Publications

Indirect activities often represent an underemphasized, yet significant, contributing source of costs for organizations. In order to manage indirect costs, organizations must understand how these costs behave relative to changes in operational resources and activities. This is of particular interest to the Air Force and its sister services, because recent and projected reductions in defense spending are forcing reductions in their operational variables, and insufficient research exists to help them understand how this may influence indirect costs. Furthermore, although academic research on indirect costs has advanced the knowledge behind the modeling and behavior of indirect costs, significant gaps in the …