The Use of Baselining in Acquisition Program Management

Book excerpt: All major weapon system programs establish a program baseline early in the acquistion cycle which sets forth cost, schedule, and performance targets. If the thresholds are exceeded, a review and assessment procedure is initiated in an attempt to understand why the threshold was "breached" and how the program can be brought back on track. This research develops an analytic tool to compare historical trends in the number, duration, and factors affecting breaches and studies the relationship between program acquisition life-cycles and the factors affecting deviations from program baselines.