Creating DoD program success through program management leadership and trust-based relationships

Abstract

Program management is the art of creating success in a complex and ever changing environment. It is fueled on knowledge work. Trust and the relationships are the foundational enablers that must be actively managed and nurtured. The Department of Defense Acquisition System is vast and as with any large system, it contains a multitude of issues. This examination focuses on program management challenges faced by the Government Program Manager and their Defense Contractor counterpart, and how each introduce trust-based relationship barriers and enablers impacting an actor's ability to establish trust and a relationship. This inspection explores trust-based relationship barriers and enablers derived from five different bodies of knowledge. First, I establish a barrier and enabler baseline based on my own professional experience. Second, I capture literature research and theory based barriers and enablers, which provide a diverse and rich understanding of trust and relationships. Third, I conduct a process research study of two major programs and inspect readily available and secondary information to determine trust patterns, common themes, and unique perspectives. Fourth, I survey Acquisition Professionals to determine trust-based relationship barriers and enablers at the Executive, PM-to-PM, and Program Level. Concluding, I interview Acquisition Professionals to garner a deeper understanding of the Department of Defense Acquisition System. Throughout each body of knowledge, I compare barriers and enablers to identify common themes, which produces the basis for each recommendation. Recommendations are focused on improving a PM's skills and the environment in which he or she operates. Actors within the DoD Acquisition System are trained on process routines but are not adequately trained on enablers such as leadership and communication, which build a capability to intelligently execute the routine. Intelligent application of the process routine introduces program management flexibility and trust. This in turn allows an actor to leverage the process to build trust and success system wide. Without actors, trust, and relationships, the process will never produce 'art of the possible' results.