Program Management "Tools" Course

Program Manager, July, 2000 by Steve Israel, Bill Bahnmaier

Pilot Offering Slated for October 2000

Jim the "Tool" Man will soon be able to take the new PMT 2XX Program Management Tools Course. Scheduled for a pilot offering in October 2000, PMT 2XX is DSMC's answer to a formal request from the Chair of the Acquisition Management Functional Group to develop a Level II Program Management Career Field certification course. PMT 2XX will provide journeyman-level members of the defense acquisition workforce a comprehensive view of key tools used in the DoD systems acquisition management process. As an instructional foundation, the new course will use a hypothetical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) acquisition program.

Ideally, upon completion of the course, students will be better prepared to manage the business and technical aspects of systems acquisition. Likewise, they will be better prepared to work on Integrated Product Teams (IPT) supporting acquisition programs.

Laying the Groundwork

Several professionals from the defense acquisition workforce played key roles in laying the groundwork for PMT 2XX. Frank Swofford, the DSMC National Defense Industrial Association Chair, initiated contacts with interested industry providers of this type of course offering. Stan Soloway, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Reform, encouraged the pursuit of Distance Learning as the preferred method of course delivery Wil Perantino and Tina Minor, on the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) Headquarters staff, provided valuable technical analysis of the contractor concept papers.

PMT 2XX courseware will be compliant with Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM) architecture, which will facilitate the future use of course modules in other DAU offerings, including future Knowledge Management systems planned for the college. Additionally PMT 2XX will interface with the DAU Virtual Campus/Operating Support System (OSS), which will handle student registration, tracking, exams, and end-of-course critiques. The new "Tools" Course will address gaps in career field performance, mainly: scheduling, cost estimating, risk management, contract management, Earned Value Management (EVM), Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and leadership skills.

After careful consideration, the PMT 2XX Team recommended a software-intensive system course scenario called "Firebird," which is based loosely on joint UAV programs managed by U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md. The Firebird scenario was initially developed for the new ACQ 201 course. However, the basic PMT 2XX course design was left up to industry to propose in white papers and subsequent concept papers solicited in early April and May.

The DAU acquisition strategy that evolved included the use of the Federal Supply Schedule, which was initiated by an Industry Day April 12 where five industry teams made company presentations and initial approaches to the PMT 2XX course development.

Shortly after Industry Day PMT 2XX Concept Papers were received and evaluated; and a follow-on task order was issued to Andersen Consulting for the development of PMT 2XX.

Andersen's concept consists of 90 hours of Web-based training offered to students over a 12-day period. Courseware is expected to be interactive and modular in format, a blend of a distance learning training approach and a virtual classroom. The virtual classroom supports real-time, synchronous, and off-line, asynchronous interactions in an IPT environment. Off-line interactions include research, reading, and routing materials for review. Real-time interactions occur at scheduled times each day, and include electronic IPT breakout sessions scheduled, as needed, by each IPT.

Use of the existing Firebird scenario is expected to provide several benefits, including reduced development effort, as well as increased participant retention gained by using a familiar scenario from ACQ 201. The PMT 2XX course structure is a distance learning solution that incorporates the flexibility of self-paced skills building with goal-based skills and team applications as depicted in Figure 1.

The PMT 2XX Course Schedule proposed by Andersen suggests a Goal-Based Scenario based on the Firebird UAV as the Capstone event of the course. Other unique characteristics of the Andersen proposal include a DAU/contractor partnering approach for both course delivery and maintenance, which will allow for planned, structured releases, ensuring best practices integration and course currency A listing of course modules is shown in Figure 2.

Anderson Term

Andersen Consulting partnered with DSMC and provided their own five- to eight-person, on-site team to begin the development process on campus the week of July 3.

Leading the Andersen Team is Ken Bloom. Bloom has 10 years' experience designing, developing, and delivering training programs, and is a senior manager within the Government Market Unit at Andersen Consulting He also has extensive experience in adult learning and human performance and holds a postgraduate degree in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University, as well as a master's degree in Behavioral Psychology from Eastern Michigan University.