A Risk Analysis Tool to Evaluate the ROI of Major Defense Acquisition Program Knowledge Based Acquisition Practice Implementation for Engineering Manager

This Praxis analyzes the impact of cost, schedule, and human capital risks on the ROI of naval defense knowledge based acquisition practice implementation within the integrated defense acquisition, technology, and logistics lifecycle management system for engineering related technologies. The model presented in this Praxis aids in the development of a systematic approach to managing these risks across the material support analysis, technology development, engineering and manufacturing development, production and deployment, and operations and support phases and will result in more accurate, comprehensive and efficient engineering management by Defense Acquisition Professionals. The tool can be utilized by practicing engineering managers to assess the impact of human capital decisions on the ROI of implementing knowledge based acquisition practices. Outputs of the tool support recommendations to delay decisions, hire new engineers, or realign existing human capital resources to address the identified risk. The model proposes functional relationships among constructs and multiple regressions are used to test the hypothesis. The results indicate that a strong positively correlated relationship exists between human capital risks and the economic benefits of implementing knowledge based acquisition practices. Further, the results show that naval defense acquisition programs with lower human capital risk exhibit higher ROI, human capital and the schedule performance of Major Defense Acquisition Programs have a strong positive relationship, and that human capital and the cost performance of Major Defense Acquisition Programs have a very weak relationship.