CH-146 Griffon

[Baz]

…

Risk.

Government does not grok it.

…

No matter what you do, you always accept risk. To make good decisions you have to have a good grasp of the impact vs likelihood curve.

The technical, monetary, and schedule risks usually hold sway. Historically, operational (mission) risk has been ignored too much.

As an example, from my community ( I have multiple)… updating the Sea King for the last 20 years of its life. Everything in the aircraft was old so there was technical risk. It was hard to integrate so there was budget and schedule risks. If you pushed too hard without enough resources you might get it wrong so there was safety risk.

So, from the eyes of the weapon systems manager worst case if we did anything we’d loss an aircraft. That wasn’t a risk they were prepared to take. However, the less likely but more critical risk if we did nothing was a mission failure leading to loss of a ship. That was for all intents and purposes completely outside their Risk Assessment / Rusk Management process.

So, what is the solution… highlight that risk in a way they have no choice but to act on. We came close to that, but it took a lot of effort.

 

[Kirkhill]

No matter what you do, you always accept risk. To make good decisions you have to have a good grasp of the impact vs likelihood curve.

The technical, monetary, and schedule risks usually hold sway. Historically, operational (mission) risk has been ignored too much.

As an example, from my community ( I have multiple)… updating the Sea King for the last 20 years of its life. Everything in the aircraft was old so there was technical risk. It was hard to integrate so there was budget and schedule risks. If you pushed too hard without enough resources you might get it wrong so there was safety risk.

So, from the eyes of the weapon systems manager worst case if we did anything we’d loss an aircraft. That wasn’t a risk they were prepared to take. However, the less likely but more critical risk if we did nothing was a mission failure leading to loss of a ship. That was for all intents and purposes completely outside their Risk Assessment / Rusk Management process.

So, what is the solution… highlight that risk in a way they have no choice but to act on. We came close to that, but it took a lot of effort.

I have also worked with government clients, on both sides of the border.

There are two types of money.
Programmed money which you spend years chasing up ladders and down snakes.
And March money. Which kind of puts a lie to all those years of chasing snakes and ladders.
More important than anything else, it seems, is protecting budget.

If only some of that March Madness could find its way into those programmed budgets and the timelines shortened from years to less than a year.

 

[Kirkhill]

PS.

I have also worked on projects in the US that were funded by Congress (Alaska under Ted Stevens was a fiefdom - If he wanted something he got it).
I am still waiting for the promised money to make its way to the lab in Kodiak, Alaska. I am retired and Ted is long dead.
The money was voted and approved.
It never made it out of K Street.


5 to 10 million to fund a multi-year project to develop additional products for Alaskans to make and sell.

Risk management.

 

[Baz]

E

...

If only some of that March Madness could find its way into those programmed budgets and the timelines shortened from years to less than a year.

It can. What it takes is program managers to identify easily deliverable extensions or schedule move up’s, and have them ready to go. Then, when opportunity funds present themselves, you have a strong case and can react.

One year, my project manager flew to L-3 CSW in Salt Lake City to take possession of quite a few hundred thousand dollars worth of TCDL equipment. Because we had a plan we were flying in a couple of months. Better than buying furniture, although we did make a few people mad that year that didn’t get new office chairs.

Standing offers are wonderful things. When possible, get your new fancy stuff on them, or pick stuff already on them. When working from the bottom up provide the Life Cycle Managers solutions as you go. Taken to extremes, you can use end year to solve sustainment issues.

Oh, and from personal experience: if picking parts already in the system, don’t use them up without working with the LCMMs first. They get POd.

But you know what all this needs: a plan to make a good idea work. Not a plan that would work “if only the system worked correctly,” but a plan that works with the current system.

It’s very hard to change the system, and pretty much impossible to do so from the bottom up. It isn’t that hard to learn to use it to your advantage.

Oh, last thing… if your good idea works, expect everybody and their dog to take credit for it. Especially the people that got in the way the most. This is the really hard part: stroke their egos.