Integrity

EVM – Communicating its value to the “big A” acquisition community

Being able to efficiently and effectively diagnose the health of an organization’s portfolio of contracts takes time and persistence. Earned Value Management (EVM), a project management technique for measuring project performance and progress, makes it possible. However, those in the federal sector, including EVM experts, need to do more to communicate its value for increased …

Procurement: Meeting the PALT in Four Simple Steps (UPDATE)

Imagine working in a high stress environment where contract support for a mission critical program may expire at the end of the month and there is no backup plan. Your organization had plans to re-compete the contract earlier in the fiscal year, but the procurement package or requisition was not developed on time. Several documents …

Meeting by Phone? 10 Basics for Better Project Management Teleconferences

We’ve all been part of a teleconference, with some people in the room and others on the phone. Dialing in, it can be difficult to hear, or follow the proceedings, or make ourselves heard. In the room, it can be frustrating when those on the phone fall behind, speak over top of one another, or …

Procurement: Meeting the PALT in Four Simple Steps

Imagine working in a high stress environment where contract support for a mission critical program may expire at the end of the month and there is no backup plan. Your organization had plans to re-compete the contract earlier in the fiscal year, but the procurement package or requisition was not developed on time. Several documents …

Milestone Decisions: Checkpoints for Acquisition Success

Integrity just completed relocation to an expanded new headquarters this week, custom-built to meet the needs and goals of the business in 2015 and beyond. Like any major project, it involved complex planning, thousands of individual decisions, and frequent deadlines that had to be met to move on to the next phase, and ultimately project …

Preparing a Project Management Plan 101

You landed on a great project team and were asked to prepare the Project Management Plan. Even though you’ve executed or implemented project management plans, you never actually prepared a project management plan. Where do you start? What elements belong in the project management plan? Let’s start with some basics. Is a “project management plan” …

2015 Trend Forecast – Acquisition and Program Management

What emerging or continuing trends will dominate the next 12 months or more in federal acquisition and program management? Our Integrity experts each forecast one top trend for 2015 – cybersecurity, workforce development, requirements development, contracts standardization & IT acquisition innovation. Let’s begin with an issue once again in the news this week – how to …

Acquisition and Program Management Tools for 2015

It’s the time of year when many of us take stock of the last 12 months and vow to improve next year. We will be smarter, more organized, perhaps even try something new. The numerous Integrity Matters articles written by our on-the-ground experts in 2014 provide a leg up for the New Year. They contain …

Get Off the Lessons Learned Treadmill: Simple Ideas for Continuous Improvement in 2015

As a Program Manager, have you noticed a trend that your program keeps on repeating the same lessons learned or mistakes?  As a program, when completing a yearly reporting requirement, do you hear yourself stating to your staff that we did not complete x, y, or z in order to fulfill our operational requirements?  If …

With A Great Contract Management Plan, The Sky is the Limit

Your team may have spent hours and hours considering the program management, risk management and quality assurance issues involved in letting a new government contract. But have you pulled the key information about how that contract will be managed into a single plan? A Contract Management Plan (CMP) is one of the primary tools the …