January 6, 2009

Dear David,

I What a great concept for the PM Manifesto for America. Here in Aerospace & Defense, there has been a steady stream of GAO reports on the failings of the PP&C discipline to forecast poor program performance. As a provider of these services with staff working defense and NASA programs, some programs are successful and some are weakly successful. It appears from my small point of view, that senior leaders simply do not understand the business benefits of program and project management, nor do they have the proper staff to “keep them out of trouble.” Instead PP&C is seen as a mandatory compliance issue used to produce reports for the DCMA and corporate auditors.

PMI’s project of the year several years ago was Rocky Flats (www.rfets.gov) . I was a Program Manager there – along with dozens and dozens of other program managers. One thing Alan Parker – the then CEO of Kaiser-Hill – ruthlessly insisted on, was a daily accounting of progress to plan. He message was loud and clear, “we’ll lose this program one day at a time.” This type of discipline is missing from the general government program management circles.

How in any small way can I and my firm contribute to this renewed effort?

Glen Alleman

VP, Program Planning and Controls
Lewis and Fowler
http://www.lewisandfowler.com/

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