DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ADOPTS INDUSTRY GUIDELINES FOR EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology
Paul G. Kaminski announced that he has accepted recently
published industry guidelines for earned value management systems
(EVMS) as replacements for the Department of Defense
Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC).
The DoD had
required its contractors to comply with C/SCSC for nearly thirty
years.
In recent years, EVMS principles have been adopted
increasingly by commercial industry in the United States and by
government and industry in Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the
United Kingdom.
The EVMS guidelines were issued by the Aerospace Industries
Association, American Shipbuilders Association, Electronic
Industries Association, National Security Industrial Association,
and Shipbuilders Council of America.
By accepting the industry
guidelines as a substitute for C/SCSC, DoD is encouraging
industry to develop a widely accepted industry or international
standard that obviates the need for DoD to maintain its own
requirements.
David Drabkin, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of
Defense for Acquisition Reform (Acquisition Process and
Policies), said "It has been our vision of acquisition reform
from the very beginning to adopt, where practicable, commercial
practices in lieu of government unique practices.
Clearly, EVMS
offers an opportunity to become more commercial like in one of
our most unique government practices."
Gary Christle, Deputy Director for Performance Management,
whose office worked with industry to reconcile government and
commercial management practices, added, "Our evaluation of the
EVMS guidelines shows that the basic principles underlying
government and industry project management are the same.
By
asserting ownership of those principles, industry has made it
possible for DoD to reduce significantly the detailed reviews
that were previously required on every major new contract, as
well as contractors' internal reporting and documentation
requirements.
In the future, we can rely more on our contractors
to maintain management control systems that protect the public
interest."
New contracts awarded by DoD will cite the EVMS guidelines.
Contractors that are operating management control systems
previously accepted as compliant with C/SCSC will be encouraged
to submit changes through the "block change" procedures to change
all existing contracts within their facilities to a single EVMS
business process.
A block change is an acquisition reform
initiative that involves the consolidation or elimination of
multiple processes, specifications and standards in all contracts
on a facility-wide basis, rather than a contract-by-contract
basis.
In accepting the EVMS guidelines, Kaminski said "The change
from C/SCSC to EVMS marks a major shift in responsibility from
government to industry and support the 'insight, not oversight'
philosophy underlying DoD acquisition reform initiatives." The
shift in responsibility will benefit industry by permitting more
efficient, single internal processes that meet all program
management needs, and will benefit the government by improving
contract administration while at the same time reducing
oversight, with savings for the taxpayer.
Further information on earned value management systems may
be obtained from http://www.acq.osd.mil/pm.
