Program Documentation and Reporting Requirements: Reducing the Burden on Program Managers

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Program Documentation and Reporting Requirements: Reducing the Burden on Program Managers

L. S. Brandt / J. E. Keller

This study, 'Program Documentation and Reporting Requirements: Requirements: Reducing the Burden on Program Managers,' began in 1987 at the request of the acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Engineering and Systems. He expressed concern that the proliferation of requirements for documentation and reporting interferes with the program managers' ability to do their primary job, the efficient acquisition of quality weapon systems. Documentation and reporting requirements impose a significant workload burden. IN NAVAIR, for example, nearly 20% of the available, in-house manyears and 30% of senior management's time are devoted to the paperwork burden. For a variety of reasons this burden was somewhat less in the other Systems Commands and in the Army and in the Air Force. Much of the problem is rooted in duplication and overlap (some legislatively caused) and in inconsistency in policy and procedural guidance. The study led to a number of recommendations for improvement which were presented to the Under Secretary of the Navy who was also the Navy's Service Acquisition Executive (SAE). The Under Secretary endorsed these recommendations in August 1988, and Navy staff, with continuing analytical support provided by CNA, has been working with the other Services and with OSD since that time to carry out a phased implementation effort. Keywords: Acquisition; Defense planning; Documentation; Documents; Files (records); Government procurement; Interviews; Job performance; Management; Military procurement; Productivity; Questionnaries; Records management; Reports; Workload. (sdw)