Process

In general, program offices are responsible for developing and maintaining the technical baseline throughout the life cycle, because they possess the most knowledge of their programs. A best practice is to assign an integrated team of various experts—system engineers, design experts, schedulers, test and evaluation experts, financial managers, and cost estimators—to develop the technical baseline at the beginning of the program. The program manager approves the technical baseline to ensure that it contains all information necessary to define the program’s systems and to develop the cost estimate.

Furthermore, the technical baseline should be updated in preparation for program reviews, milestone decisions, and major program changes. The credibility of the cost estimate will suffer if the technical baseline is not maintained. Without explicit documentation of the basis of a program’s estimates, it is difficult to update the cost estimate and provide a verifiable trace to a new cost baseline as key assumptions change during the course of the program’s life.

It is normal and expected that early program technical baselines will be imprecise or incomplete and that they will evolve as more information becomes known. However, it is essential that the technical baseline provides the best available information at any point in time. To try to create an inclusive view of the program, the program office should make assumptions about the unknowns and these should be agreed on by management. The assumptions and their corresponding justifications should be documented in the technical baseline. The technical baseline should also identify the level of risk associated with the assumptions so that the estimate’s credibility can be determined