HOW DOES A PROGRAM MANAGER MAKE SENSE OF THE ACQUISITION PROGRAM'S ENVIRONMENT TO PREVENT PROBLEMS FROM INSTIGATING FAILURE? AN ANALYSIS OF INPUTS AND PROCESSES USED TO MAKE INFORMATIVE DECISIONS

This Joint Applied Project is part of a more prominent research topic sponsored by Raymond Jones under the Acquisition Research Program at the Naval Postgraduate School's Graduate School of Defense Management to investigate how program managers gain insight into the decision-making process. This study uses qualitative research in the form of ethnographic interviewing as a research design to observe human behavior. This particular project gathers information from three DOD program managers and examines through illustrative examples how each program manager thinks when making decisions. Results indicate that sensemaking and explicit knowledge are the most influential factors for providing insight into decision-making. Our interpretation of these results suggests that interference hinders a program manager’s decision-making, and the acquisition process is tailorable but not as agile as it needs to be. Further research is recommended on how to tailor the acquisition process better to ensure a program manager’s decision-making prevents problems from instigating failure.
Civilian, Defense Logistics Agency
Civilian, Department of the Navy
Civilian, Department of the Navy
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