CASE STUDY

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY

Client: Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Leadership and Professional Development (FAA LPD)
Area of Focus: Program Management
Contract Vehicle: OPM TMA

Abstract

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) engaged Carney to manage the classroom delivery of hundreds of standard and customized training classes across the US in acquisition workforce disciplines including contracting, business analysis, and appropriations law.

Background

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Leadership and Professional Development (FAA LPD) is tasked with training the agency’s acquisition workforce through the FAA’s career development and certification program for their acquisition workforce professionals. The need to close competency gaps and create new competency areas within the acquisition workforce was well studied and documented. The agency was pressed to provide more and better targeted acquisition training due to the absorption of hundreds of FAA acquisition workforce members that resulted from the 2008 restructuring of regional offices and Service Centers into the Air Traffic Organization (ATO). In addition, over the next five years, a large number of experienced FAA acquisition practitioners will be retiring. The ability to train a large number of acquisition practitioners is essential.

Challenge

A large number of FAA personnel needed to be trained all over the country. There were several challenges confronting the FAA in meeting this need:

Insufficient training facilities: The FAA did not have sufficient facilities to train its personnel, especially in the Washington, D.C. area.
Significant program management effort: Due to class enrollment, available funding, and competing priorities, training requirements changed on a weekly basis. A significant program management effort was required to manage these changing requirements.
Complex scheduling and coordination effort: The needed training involved multiple clients responsible for different acquisition areas. As the training requirements of these many clients changed, those requirements needed to be matched with the availability of classrooms and instructors.

Carney Solution

Partnering with Management Concepts, Inc., Carney developed an initial schedule of approved, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and FAA-developed training classes. To address the project management challenges, customized standard training administrative processes including rosters, shipping books, evaluations, and certificates of completion were developed to meet the FAA’s needs. To address the complex scheduling and coordination effort, weekly status meetings were held in order to monitor training requirement changes, set class participation levels, determine class cancellations, and manage funding. A high level of coordination with OPM TMA was needed to manage the work orders, task orders, deliverables, and invoicing processes.

Results

Over 150 classroom courses were delivered in the first year with a high learner satisfaction.

Delivering Remarkable Client Experience

The FAA was very satisfied with the Carney Team’s ability to adapt to constant change while delivering outstanding classes. As a result, the FAA returned to Carney for a second year in 2009 and added even more courses to the successful program.

Carney – A trusted partner

Carney, founded in 1994, provides government and military clients with innovative knowledge management solutions that accelerate workforce performance. Carney’s products and services help agencies accomplish mission-critical objectives and improve readiness.

Through best practices and a thorough examination of the challenges facing military and government leaders, Team Carney identifies new ways to capture, control, and transform knowledge through competency analyses, knowledge transfer strategies, and assessment evaluations.

Carney strives to provide remarkable client experiences by delivering quality performance solutions at the speed of need.