Program Manager's Support System (PMSS): An Update,

The Defense Systems Acquisition Process is a complicated process requiring the integration of many disciplines and functional areas. The Defense program manager PM, in executing an assigned program within this environment, is faced with many non-routine and unstructured decisions. Although Management Information Systems MIS typically are available to the PM and provide information to aid in making these decisions, they predominately support only past and current project status, usually with an abundance, and many times perhaps, an over-abundance of data. A need exists, therefore, to support the PMs decision-making process by looking at future courses of action and distilling the available data into meaningful alternatives. This need is being addressed at the Defense Systems Management College DSMC through a research project aimed at applying Decision Support System DSS technology to the Defense weapons systems program management environment. This paper describes the resultant Program Managers Support System PMSS effort. It is an update to the PMSS presentation given at the 1982 Federal Acquisition Research Symposium. As such, this paper presents a brief background review, the functional requirements for such a system, the projects current status and future plans, and issues which must be addressed.