Lean Techniques for Project Management in the Acquisition Environment

The objective of the proposed work is to develop Lean Project Management (LPM) training material beneficial to government program management and procurement professionals. LPM is the synthesis of traditional Lean techniques enhanced by Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), and both supported by recent developments in Uncertainty/Decision Management. Recent work by the Robust Decisions Inc. has focused on how to manage uncertain information and monitor risk when making decisions critical to CCPM and Lean success. The proposed work first identifies the factors that underlie LPM through literature search and questionnaires. The goal is to develop a uniform set of success measures that, when combined with a Current Reality Tree (CRT), describes the acquisition environment in terms of the behaviors necessary to achieve reduced project cost and development time. Next, the tools needed to bring lean techniques to acquisition training will be specified. Project simulation and uncertainty/decision management support tools are available to the RDI and subcontractor. Based on all of the above, the specifications for an LPM training program will be developed. This training will have modules tailored for both the executive/general audience, to gain their commitment, and application courses for project management/supervisors and planning/scheduling teams.