Space Acquisition - Air Force Space Command

By relentlessly pursuing continuous improvements in all areas of our SMC business cases, we have
learned to not merely exchange ideas but to jointly mitigate program deficiencies with our customers.
one program to another. Most importantly, PMAG members
are not simply consultants, but participants who roll up their
sleeves and provide true value to our customers. By rotating
core and augmentee staff across programs, a life cycle system
integration focus is developed and applied.
Everybody in PMAG brings their own unique expertise.
The keystone of PMAG’s success is this multi-disciplinary
team approach. Each member is holistically focused, enthusiastic
to apply integrated program management capabilities with
a strong technical background. It is this passionate teamwork
that pushes each PMAG member to exceed their own expectations
and results in creation of valuable group products (i.e.,
integrated program risks). The success of the PMAG is not due
to any individual accomplishment but to the nature and quality
of the teamwork. It is this dedicated collaboration that enables
PMAG to successfully execute multiple programs simultaneously.
This commitment to excellence earned the learning opportunities,
touch-time, and unprecedented collaboration with
PMAG partners and customers.
By relentlessly pursuing continuous improvements in all areas
of our SMC business cases, we have learned to not merely
exchange ideas but to jointly mitigate program deficiencies
with our customers. These business cases include development
of requirements definitions, acquisition strategies, requests for
proposal, source selections, integrated baseline reviews, design
reviews, and deployment processes. These passionate collaborative
relationships are at the core of innovation. Successful
creative relationships spark further collaborations creating a
cycle of more and more successes—and this passion for success
is contagious.
While the PMAG continues to provide assistance to many
military space programs, it is the intention of senior Air Force
acquisition leadership at the secretary of the Air Force for acquisition
and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), that the
PMAG concept be propagated throughout the US Air Force.
As a first step in spreading these new methodologies outside of
SMC, the PMAG is to propagate its methods, culture, and lessons
learned to the Defense Acquisition University and AFMC.
This is a key step in changing current development acquisition
culture and training new acquisition professionals, but it is
hardly enough. True knowledge in acquisitions comes not in
a classroom, but in on-the-job training, in seeing, in doing and
in experiencing passionate mentoring and coaching efforts. To
just read about PMAG’s implementation of integrated program
management does not compare with experiencing it personally;
there is nothing like an acquisitions team operating at its highest
level of performance.
PMAG Support of GPS IIIA Program Startup
From 13 November 2007 to 31 October 2008, PMAG distinguished
itself by supporting the SMC’s $1.4 billion GPS Block
IIIA IBR Team. As GPS Commander Col David W. Madden
stated to Aerotech News and Review, “The PMAG, SMC’s
program management [expert assistance team], were an integral
part of the overall process providing application oriented
training, templates, analyses, and assessments vital to IBR success.”
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PMAG’s three-phased risk formulation, CAM Notebook
evaluation training, program planning, best baseline review
practice, and collaboration with the contractor’s program startup
assistance team succeeded in building a strong organic integrated
program management capability within the wing and the
prime contractor. This three-phased startup IBR verified and
validated technical, schedule, and cost performance aspects of
the baseline, encompassing over 600 control accounts in total.
The PMAG conducted close to 180 critical and near-critical
path control account assessments to ensure this crucial $1.4 billion
performance measurement baseline is executable.
This program startup assistance in IBR was accomplished
through unheralded cooperation with the wing, integrated staff,
FFRDC, SETA, and industry partners to provide integrated
program management, program control, and system integration
expertise. PMAG worked to develop new methodologies and
incorporate lessons learned from other successful programs,
providing detailed instruction to the wing to ensure further
program success. PMAG methodologies for various program
startup activities will be detailed in a later article.
Re-Focusing Our Organic Capability
The success of any high-performance team is dependent on
each team member as an individual. We are all team members,
every one of us; with responsibilities to ourselves, to each other,
our industry, our community, and our country. We have the
responsibility and accountability as individual team members
to be the best, to push the envelope at all times and in all directions.
We can accept no less if SMC is to maintain itself as the
nation’s center of acquisition excellence for 21 st century space
systems development. So as individuals, what must we do to
become the best of the best We must:
• Combat complacency and passivity.
• Connect with anyone in the workplace.
• Make ourselves multilingual, multicultural, multidisciplinary
acquisition experts.
• Develop a better understanding of ourselves and the people
around us.
• Have respect for all individuals.
• Be a life-long learner.
• Be adaptable.
• Demonstrate agility.
• Embrace disciplined execution.
• Become active listeners.
• Proceed with optimism and a can-do spirit.
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