Location

There is no charge for attending this event, but preregistration is required. 

The Noblis cafeteria, on the same floor, will be open and available for you to purchase lunch and bring into the auditorium

Acquisition in DOD and other government agencies has received a lot of bad press over the last few years. Program Managers have been fired. Programs have been stopped because of massive cost over-runs. Requirements creep seems to be endemic, and the “creep” is under funded. What is really going on, and what can be done about it?

Effectiveness is getting confused with performance – a perception that is probably related to the proliferation of performance check-lists. It seems that there are several requirements that are critical for effective acquisition:

• A vision for the Program that is shared by all the stakeholders
• A strategic plan with the logic trail and critical paths explicit – so that any changes can be made in conscious recognition of what they are going to affect and how it will change the planned output
• Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) that take priority over Measures of Performance (MOPs)

This presentation will discuss these issues and requirements.

Christine MacNulty has more than thirty-five years experience as a consultant in long-term strategic planning for concepts as well as organizations, technology forecasting, technology assessment and related areas, as well as socio-cultural change. Recently she has applied her knowledge of strategy, cultures and cognition to “understanding our adversaries” and to using that information to develop a method for planning and assessing effective non-traditional operations, information operations, and strategic communications.

During the last thirty years Christine has contributed methods and models for understanding social and cultural change. She developed the European version of SRI International’s Values & Lifestyles Program, and worked with the International Research Institute on Social Change to develop their social models for use by industry. She has applied her knowledge of people and their values and beliefs to strategic planning, marketing planning, advertising, vision development, organizational change, R&D planning, new concepts, technology assessment and business development.

Christine is a popular speaker at conferences and is the coauthor of two books: Industrial Applications of Technology Forecasting, Wiley, 1971, and Network-Centric Operations: Translating Principles into Practice to be published in 2008. She is presently writing a book on Strategy with Passion: What I have learned from the US Navy SEALs and Others.