This week, NNSA's Office of Acquisition and Project Management hosted a training at the National Training Center in Albuquerque to improve NNSA’s capability to plan and deliver safe, quality construction on budget.
APM's Corporate Project Management program is providing the training, processes, tools, and technology to develop and sustain a Federal workforce capable of managing design and construction contracts for capital asset projects. The tools and trainings include, but are not limited to, the use of project management handbooks, Standard Operating Practices, firm-fixed price contracts, support service contracts, strategic Federal alliances, and an interactive web-based tool for implementing, managing, monitoring, and approving project configuration processes throughout project lifecycle.
NNSA has already made significant investments to strengthen project management through highly qualified, accountable, and responsible federal project directors (FPDs). NNSA is ensuring that as the project progresses from planning to design to construction, the FPDs have the appropriate training, experience, and certification level to successfully execute the project. FPDs must have a sound understanding of the Federal Acquisition Regulations and have a broad knowledge base in order to communicate performance expectations with NNSA’s contracting officers and contractors. NNSA has demonstrated project cost and schedule goals can be achieved, even with the most complex projects, when clear expectations are set, the Federal and contractor site and headquarters teams are aligned, and all parties accept accountability for their roles in project delivery.
Over the past three years, NNSA has delivered its $725M project portfolio approximately $50M - or seven percent - under its original budget. NNSA is saving taxpayer dollars, allowing scarce resources to be reinvested back into mission. GAO and Congress have both recognized NNSA’s improvements. In February 2013, GAO removed all NNSA projects costing under $750M from the High Risk List.
