Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD)

The Client

NSWCDD is a science and engineering facility that the Navy relies on to efficiently provide effective and reliable weapon systems for the fleet. To this end, hundreds of ongoing systems engineering and software development projects are conducted by government and contractor scientists and engineers. The Surface Ship Program Office (SSPO) within NSWCDD is responsible for managing the efforts of more than 20 independent functional groups supporting the software development life cycle for several major weapon systems projects.

The Challenge

The information systems used in organizing and implementing projects comprised a set of incompatible mainframe, client/server, and desktop applications that contained redundant data and included significant gaps in crucial program management information. These systems were maintenance-intensive and were not user-friendly. BearingPoint was engaged to help the organization meet their need for integrated program management.

The Solution

After an assessment of the organization’s current applications, BearingPoint recommended several leading commercial off-the-shelf-based products, including (1) an enterprise-capable project management suite and (2) a decision support system. NSWCDD’s objective was to consistently implement these capabilities across the organization for approximately 160 project managers and nearly 1,000 users. BearingPoint efficiently deployed our Enterprise Program Management solution, which includes our robust tool set offering, Virtual Program Management (vPM).

The Benefits

The decision support system has already given Navy project managers better insight into data from existing operational systems and data collection processes and is expected to provide even more insight in the near future as subsequent data increments come online. BearingPoint’s knowledge of and experience with the client’s processes were incorporated into the tool training, making the “just-in-time?process-based training more applicable and well received by most users. NSWCDD has used this implementation as the foundation for improving its management processes, and it continues to seek BearingPoint’s involvement as it strives to further increase the use of technology in managing its projects, implementing an earned value management system, and improving its Capability Maturity Model for Software level.

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