DOD Naval Air Systems Command Cost Department, Integrated Project Management Division

DOD’s Naval Air Systems Command Cost Department (NAVAIR 4.2) conducts cost estimates and analysis throughout the life cycle of naval aviation programs and their affiliates. NAVAIR 4.2 is organized into three divisions. NAVAIR 4.2.3, Integrated Project Management, is responsible for, among other things, IMS development and maintenance, schedule risk assessments, integrated baseline reviews, and earned value and schedule analysis. The Integrated Project Management Toolkit and associated Schedule Metrics Guide (referred to here as the Toolkit) are used to provide NAVAIR 4.2.3 analysts guidance for validating contractor master schedules and for preparing monthly analyses for government program management.47

To analyze a schedule, NAVAIR uses an 11-point assessment described in the Toolkit. Its assessment steps are

  1. Completeness of the IMS
  2. Critical target dates established and used for planning
  3. Sequence of work
  4. Schedule architecture and integration
  5. Proper use of constraints, leads, and lags
  6. Necessary and consistent detail for tasks
  7. Resource adequacy and availability
  8. Critical path calculation and reasonableness
  9. Reasonableness of slack
  10. IMS status and forecasting abilities
  11. Evaluation of the risk in the IMS.

Best practices described in the Toolkit differ in several ways from best practices in the GAO Schedule Assessment Guide. The Toolkit does not verify whether government activities are fully integrated with contractor activities or whether activities are resource loaded. The Toolkit does not address these best practices because the NAVAIR 11-point assessment is an interpretation of ANSI/EIA-748 guidelines, the intent of the IMS DID 81650, and the IPMR DID 81861. As NAVAIR notes, the assessment helps verify that the contractor’s scheduling techniques meet the minimum requirements of network scheduling. Focusing on a contractor’s IMS follows DOD’s practice of defining an IMS in terms of contracted work.

However, NAVAIR does promote the integration of contractor and government activities through links between the contractor IMS and the integrated government schedule (IGS). The IGS is a government-controlled schedule that contains activities the government needs to perform in support of a program. The IGS also includes givers and receivers that are linked to the contractor IMS. While an IGS is not required, a program management office may request one; in this case, NAVAIR 4.2 analysts will assist in creating and maintaining the IGS and its links to the contractor IMS.

Finally, because neither DID 81650 nor DID 81861 requires that resources be assigned to activities in an IMS, the Toolkit has no measurements or process to verify the schedule’s activities are assigned resources. However, NAVAIR currently has an initiative to develop a process for resource loading the IGS.

We found no other substantive differences between best practices detailed in the Schedule Assessment Guide and the Toolkit and other NAVAIR documentation. The Toolkit describes 76 schedule measures, some of which are not covered by the Schedule Assessment Guide. Toolkit measures are accompanied by extensive documentation describing their definitions, formulas or filters, purpose, examples, and cautions to be aware of while interpreting results. Most of the measures not covered by the Schedule Assessment Guide are detailed comparisons and trend analyses of the current schedule against the baseline schedule. Similar to GAO’s criteria, measurements in the Toolkit do not rely on tripwires or thresholds. Rather, a schedule’s health is determined by assessing the impact of schedule anomalies on the network.

  1. We referenced the following instructions and guidelines: Naval Air Systems Command Integrated Project Management Toolkit; Naval Air Systems Command Schedule Metrics Guide; Naval Air Systems Command Schedule Risk Assessment Toolkit.↩︎