A Team-based Approach to Continuous Improvement in Program, Project and Portfolio Management.

The Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), financed primarily by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) within the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), has a critical global mission to protect society from terrorist use of nuclear or radiological materials, from non-military sources, in an improvised nuclear device or bomb (IND) or radiological dispersal devices (RDD), commonly referred to as "dirty bombs." This threat reduction effort presently comprises more than 1,000 projects in over 100 countries, including the USA. The GTRI includes portfolios of programs and projects involving many countries and organizational entities, both public and private. A broad and mature perspective is needed to develop, implement, and continually improve the management processes used for planning, authorizing, funding, executing, monitoring, reporting, and controlling such global programs. The physical results of many of these projects also require sustaining follow-up inspections, maintenance and corrective actions for the foreseeable future. This paper summarizes the GTRI accomplishments to date, describes the complex management challenges encountered and how they have been overcome, and most importantly describes the unique Project Management Improvement Team that brings together key people from NNSA Headquarters, the eleven involved National Laboratories and national security facilities, and five independent project management experts (who are the authors of this article.) This team approach provides a model that can be useful to other large-scale initiatives involving government and industry to obtain continuous improvement of their management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]