This is the situation many of our clients find themselves in: You’ve received notification of an upcoming Integrated Baseline Review (IBR). And you’ve only got a couple of months to prepare for it.
Many organizations find the IBR timescale a challenge: typically, IBRs occur between 90 and 180 days after contract award and represent one of the most important events in the Earned Value Management System (EVMS) implementation calendar.
There is a lot to prepare for the IBR. Not least is having the baseline in place, working through updates, trying to track down data integrity problems… oh, and most of the team are fully focused on completing project tasks because that’s what you’re being paid to do. Somehow the behind-the-scenes system stuff doesn’t seem as important once the work gets going. At least, that’s how it feels until the IBR notification lands in your inbox.
The objectives of an IBR are:
- To show that you have a robust understanding of the EVMS contract requirements
- To demonstrate that the team has incorporated all relevant requirements into the cost, schedule and technical baselines
- To evaluate the integrity of your processes, systems and approach to configuration management
- To review the Control Account Managers’ knowledge of the processes involved in the project performance management approach
- To validate the program’s performance management baseline to increase confidence levels around whether the work will be delivered within the expected timeframe and budget.
When it’s time to get ready for the review, it’s helpful to have a simple approach to working through what needs to be done. Here’s how we help clients get ready for an IBR with a proven 5-step process.
Step 1: IBR prep and training
Let’s get started with a review of the contract language so everyone understands the requirements. The right contract clauses will ensure documentation is available later and it sets expectations for what is to come.
Next, it’s important to identify the right people so that key stakeholders are lined up to present to a solid agenda. As a contractor, you’ll want to look joined up and professional, so don’t miss out a stakeholder in error!
Integrated Baseline Review training helps ensure the people who need to contribute to the IBR have the right skills and mindset to actively participate – and that they aren’t feeling daunted by the whole experience.
Step 2: Review program artifacts
During this step, the action is to check that underlying data is correct. The program artifacts are reviewed to check for internal consistency and data integrity, especially across interfaces or integrations with other platforms.
Put together a data map – we do this as standard during our IBR prep engagements. The map is such a useful document because it highlights gaps in compliance, hot spots for data issues and any inconsistent reporting. Ultimately, we want to ensure that all your systems, all your reports, and all team members share the same data points reliably.
Step 3: Review Performance Management Baseline
You’ll have created a performance management baseline (PMB) and it’s time to review it. Before a reviewer gets their hands on your baseline, it’s important to carry out an independent review yourself. Look for planning gaps, quantify the data and hunt out the inconsistencies. Create a story for each control account so no one has any doubt about how it contributes to the project overall.
This is the heart of the IBR process and your team should be ready for the review. We can help get them ready with mock interviews for Control Account Managers and/or Technical Leads so they know what to expect.
Step 4: Facilitate the IBR
It’s time for the review itself. It’s helpful to have an independent organization keep the review on track, making sure the discussions are focused and that the review progresses as planned without getting stuck.
Remember, the IBR process should be a value-added experience for the team. It’s not designed to make anyone look bad. Instead, the review team are there to ensure your robust processes are working as well as they should, because that is how you are going to deliver a quality result for everyone concerned. And those processes of yours do work, don’t they?
Step 5: Complete post-IBR action items
When the work of the review is over, you will receive an IBR After Action Report (AAR) from the review team. This summarizes the whole experience from the process to the discussions and the findings from the review. The AAR serves two purposes:
- It acts as evidence that you went through the IBR and you can submit that evidence to anyone who needs to see it
- It provides a list of actions for improvement that you can use to develop a plan for next steps.
The output of the review is often a mix of Corrective Action Reports and Action Items, all of which need plans in place so that they can be adequately addressed. There might be work needed on your side, or on a sub-contractor’s side, so it’s worth staying on top of these and making sure the project team incorporates the work to close them into the project plan.
Our experienced and trusted team has helped organizations like Boeing, NASA and Raytheon Missiles to meet their post-contract EVMS requirements and prove their abilities to their clients. Whether you’re a large organization needing additional support, or a small-but-mighty contractor exploring EVM for the first time, we can help.