Progress in Improving Project Management at the Department of Energy; 2001 Assessment

Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001. Presumed First Edition/First Printing. Trade paperback. very good. xi, [1], 128 pages. Wraps. Figures. References. Appendices. In 1997, Congress, in the conference report, H.R. 105-271, to the FY1998 Energy and Water Development Appropriation Bill, directed the National Research Council to carry out a series of assessments of project management at the Department of Energy (DOE). This report, the 2001 Assessment, is the first in that series. It presents an examination of DOE's progress in improving program management and offers recommendations regarding project management methodology and project oversight. Prepared under the auspices of the Committee for Oversight and Assessment of U.S. Department of Energy Project Management, Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environments, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, National Research Council. The 105th Congressional Committee of Conference on Energy and Water Development in its appropriation conference report directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to undertake an independent review and assessment of its project management structure and processes for identifying, managing, designing and constructing facilities. The concern was the quality of the technical scopes, cost estimates, schedules, and supporting data regarding these construction projects as well as the validity of the proposed costs, scopes, and schedules. The study was to also include a review of large operating projects such as environmental projects which may or may not involve much construction, but should clearly be managed with the same principles and guidelines. The overall objective was achieve departmental processes that controlled the projects' cost and schedule as well as reduce cost growth and schedule slippages. While the original congressional direction was for the US Army Corps of Engineers to perform the review, the final version allowed the DOE to ask the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct such a study. In 1998, prior to delivering the later general study in 1999, NRC completed a short time frame study using a generic approach to assess DOE's FY98 budget request, which did not attempt to address the broader issues of systems acquisition and project delivery within DOE raised by the conference report.