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Progress in Improving Project Management at the Department of Energy 2003 Assessment (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Pages 1-6

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From page 1...
... Department of Energy Project Management has spent 3 years (2000­2003) reviewing DOE project management policies and observing actual practices at DOE headquarters; at a number of field sites, including Albuquerque Operations, Oakland Operations, Richland Operations, and Oak Ridge Operations; at national laboratories, including Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
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From page 2...
... , and Integrated Construction Program Plans (ICPPs) ; · The top-to-bottom study and the strategic redirection of EM projects with the specified objectives of earlier completion at lower cost; and · Development of the Project Management Career Development Program (PMCDP)
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From page 3...
... DOE has also expended considerable effort in the development of the PMCDP, an effort that took 3 years to plan, but whether the program will be funded and fully implemented remains uncertain. In spite of the expense and complexity of its projects, DOE invests little in human resource development for project management compared with the efforts of other federal agencies or private corporations in this area.
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From page 4...
... Several factors have contributed to the slow pace of project management improvements. These include the desire of DOE personnel and contractors to be independent of oversight from DOE headquarters, slow implementation of the PMCDP and insufficient support for training, inadequate numbers of professional project directors (DOE project managers)
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From page 5...
... critical decision process have been implemented, and many project directors in the field who were skeptical 3 years ago now express the view that this decision process has added value to the project delivery system. Despite this change, efforts continue to exempt certain sites and projects from the critical management review process and to raise the threshold level of projects subject to review, even as high as $100 million.
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From page 6...
... . Senior DOE managers have shown visible support for policies and procedures and the ability to step in to resolve deadlocks, but these actions are the equivalent of short-term fire fighting, which may be insufficient to sustain continued process improvement.
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Key Terms

  • project directors
  • doe project
  • improving project
  • deputy secretary
  • process improvement

  • nuclear security
  • senior management
  • improved project
  • visible champion
  • security administration

  • expectations regarding
  • management support
  • national nuclear
  • savannah river
  • doe management

  • doe headquarters
  • operating officer
  • management issues
  • decision process
  • management attention

  • internal opposition
  • chief operating
  • capital assets
  • environmental management
  • stanford linear

  • support staffs
  • develop project
  • management described
  • achieve progress
  • various critical


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