MONEY TO BURN
Javelin program in programmatic terms. At my change of charter ceremony, a nice lady came through the receiving line to introduce herself and shake my hand. “Hi, I’m Barb,” she said cheerily. “I’m your pro- gram analyst. It’s April,” she continued, stating the obvious, “and, if my projec- tions are correct, you’re going to be out of money by July.” I stood dumbly, taking in what she said, before she added, “Tere’s cake in the conference room. Enjoy!” I was a bit taken aback—but I knew exactly what to do.
A quick phone call to my industry coun- terpart, and we were soon developing a spend plan for the rest of the year—a con- tractor’s “diet” that he and his crew would have to adhere to strictly in order to get to Oct. 1 and a new supply of money. We published that spending plan to all pro- gram stakeholders to increase the pressure and have everyone stick to it.
I also asked for a “manpower off-ramp” chart. Since we were nearing the end of development, I wanted to see design engineers rolling off my program and on to other work at their companies. Sure, there would be production and quality types coming aboard, but I wanted to see billings for design work taper off as the design was completed. We did a little scrub of scope that the government had requested two years earlier—a variety of unnecessary contract data requirements lists, mostly—and got back about six weeks of an eight-week slip situation, arriving on budget for that year. Whew!
CONCLUSION
Te moral of this little story is to know your burn rate in addition to all the other numbers floating around. As the PM, you have a lot on your mind financially: How much have I spent this fiscal year, inter- nally to the program management office, externally to support contractors and
242 Army AL&T Magazine
SPENDING IS A MOVING TARGET
Members of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division fire an FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile during a training exercise at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, in May 2017. In the 1990s, 18 months into developing the Javelin, members of the project management team, including the author, learned the program was rapidly running out of money. (Photo by Pvt. Nicholas Vidro, 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)
government labs, test ranges, etc., and how much to the system prime contrac- tor? How much is in the colors of money that I have in the Future Years Defense Program and program objective memo- randum (POM)? What is my spend (burn) rate? How much of the fiscal year is left? When is the budget going in for next year and for how much? Does it reflect what I need, and does the POM fully reflect where we are event-wise in the program?
Tere’s so much to be fully situationally aware of on the business side. If only that were all you had to worry about. But maybe you can ask the question about
“our current burn rate” next time the dis- cussion rolls around to funds needed. You just might be the smartest person in the room!
January - March 2018
JOHN T. DILLARD, COL., USA (RET.), managed major weapons
development
efforts for most of his 26-year career in the U.S. Army. He is now a senior lecturer in systems acquisition management at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He has also served on the faculty of
the U.S. Army
War College and as an adjunct professor of project management for the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California and is a distinguished military graduate of
the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a B.A. in biological sciences.
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