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Assessment of the Results of External Independent Reviews for U.S. Department of Energy Projects (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 Characteristics of Effective External Independent Reviews
Pages 15-20

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From page 15...
... Not submitting projects to an independent peer review or conducting poorly planned and executed peer reviews can lead to projects that cost too much, take too long to complete, and do not adequately support the owner's missions (NRC, 1998)
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From page 16...
... DIVERSE STAKEHOLDERS AND BENEFITS Currently, EIRs are primarily used to validate a project's performance baseline and to estimate prospects of future performance for various stakeholders, including Congress and the public, DOE's senior managers, the OECM, the PSOs, the federal project director, and the IPT. Having projects reviewed by outside, independent experts allows DOE managers to present credible evidence to Congress that project funding requests have been carefully analyzed and are well founded.
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From page 17...
... Such reviews could provide a fresh look at the project, account for changing circumstances, identify emerging problems, and revisit project assumptions and the information on which decisions were based to ensure they remain valid. MAINTAINING INDEPENDENCE Committee members and DOE staff, M&O contractors, and EIR contractors generally agreed that review team members should be independent of the project team.
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From page 18...
... Current DOE practices disperse the responsibility for organizing the various types of reviews: contractors manage independent design and technical reviews, PSOs manage IPRs, and OECM manages EIRs. Greater coordination in the planning of reviews could improve the outcomes of all reviews.
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From page 19...
... By using a set of performance measures, improvements to the EIR process, in conjunction with other management improvements should be visible in the trends for DOE project management performance across projects and over time. USING PEER REVIEWS TO IMPROVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES Both EIRs and IPRs provide information for making effective decisions about DOE projects.
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From page 20...
... A clearly defined, systematic process for documenting data from peer reviews along with a system for cataloging, storing, and disseminating it is needed; if implemented, it would greatly enhance the benefits of peer reviews. The OECM, in collaboration with the PSO and the federal project directors, and with input from contractors, should develop criteria and guidelines for such a system.
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Key Terms

  • peer reviews
  • external independent
  • independent reviews
  • doe staff
  • eir contractors

  • project team
  • doe projects
  • performance baseline
  • project performance
  • federal project

  • corrective actions
  • improve project
  • project directors
  • benchmarking project
  • project development

  • project personnel
  • particular project
  • project director
  • doe program
  • independent design

  • allows doe
  • eir team
  • management process
  • measuring performance
  • review team

  • projects benefit
  • complex projects
  • program secretarial
  • senior managers
  • directly associated


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