Cost, schedule and risk governance on $1B+ programs.

Over ten years supporting the Department of Defense, NASA and the Department of Commerce with MCR and Booz Allen Hamilton, I designed and ran the cost, schedule and risk governance behind $1B+ defense and space programs. The work put earned value management (EVM) and full-lifecycle cost discipline in place on programs from the V-22 Osprey and MIDS to the Curiosity rover.

$1B+

Program budgets governed across the Army, Navy, Air Force, MDA, NRO and NASA

10 yrs

Supporting mission-critical defense and intelligence systems under a Top Secret clearance

ONCE

Standardized cost data templates permanently adopted in the NASA ONCE database

Polaris

Supported development of Booz Allen Hamilton's first integrated cost, schedule and risk platform

The challenge.

Siloed reporting and uncaptured variances.

These programs had strong engineering teams. The gaps were in how cost, schedule and risk were tracked and reported, and five operational flaws kept showing up.

Decoupled risk metrics. Cost, schedule and risk were evaluated separately, which hid how a schedule delay inflates multi-year sustainment costs.
Inconsistent estimating standards. Programs built cost models independently on different frameworks, so portfolios could not be compared like for like or data reused.
Fragmented mission documentation. Critical cost and performance history lived in scattered documents across teams, with no standard data collection.
Reactive variance management. Teams explained budget and schedule overruns after the fact instead of flagging variances as they appeared.
Underweighted sustainment costs. Procurement decisions focused on upfront development cost and undercounted total cost of ownership, including maintenance, software upgrades and operational sustainment.

The key measure.

Earned value indices, evaluated every reporting period.

Cost performance index (CPI) = earned value ÷ actual cost
Schedule performance index (SPI) = earned value ÷ planned value

A CPI or SPI below 1.0 is an early warning, flagged months before a missed milestone or a depleted budget

Continuous EVM tracking moved program leadership from explaining overruns to controlling them. Comparing work completed against work planned and dollars spent gave leadership early visibility, so corrections stayed small and never grew into congressional funding crises.

Program portfolio and key contributions.

Seven programs and platforms across defense, space and the firm itself.

Program or system	Client agency	Scope and impact
MIDS ($1B+ budget)	Navy (PEO C4I)	Unit lifecycle cost economist for terminal variants across aircraft, missiles and tactical radios
FAB-T systems	Air Force Cost Analysis Agency	Hardware and software lifecycle cost estimation and EVM integration for beyond-line-of-sight terminals
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite	Air Force and NASA	Lifecycle cost modeling, estimate verification and project management oversight
V-22 Osprey	Department of Defense	Cost analysis for MV-22 low-rate production and CV-22 full-rate production decisions
Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)	NASA	Cost, schedule and risk compliance for the Mars rover mission
Satellite mission data	NASA Headquarters	Standardized satellite cost templates that became the foundation of the NASA ONCE database
Polaris platform	Booz Allen Hamilton	Supported development of the firm's first integrated cost, schedule and risk modeling software

The three stage method.

The ALIGN™ framework applied to lifecycle governance. Assess and Lead in Stage 1, Integrate and Grow in Stage 2, Normalize in Stage 3.

Stage 1, build the baseline

Lifecycle cost modeling. I built complete lifecycle cost estimates covering development, production, software, hardware and multi-decade sustainment.

Integrated risk ranges. Technical and schedule risks were mapped directly into baseline cost distributions instead of being tracked on a separate ledger.

Stage 2, measure and intervene

EVM reporting cadence. Recurring earned value reviews compared planned work, accomplished work and actual spend.

Actionable variance analysis. Performance slips were caught early, and program managers got specific recommendations to bring off-track work packages back in line before budgets broke.

Stage 3, standardize and institutionalize

Centralized knowledge repositories. Historical mission data was standardized into reusable cost templates, which created the structure for the NASA ONCE database.

Enterprise tooling. I supported development of Polaris, which made integrated cost, schedule and risk modeling standard across Booz Allen Hamilton's federal practice.

Findings and remediation.

The pattern in each governance area and the solution put in place.

Governance area	Legacy operational pattern	Framework solution implemented
Program visibility	Cost, schedule and risk evaluated in separate silos	An integrated EVM framework linking schedule slips to direct cost impact
Cost scope	Budgets focused narrowly on initial build costs	Full lifecycle costing covering operations, maintenance and upgrades
Variance detection	Overruns explained after the funds were spent	CPI and SPI early-warning triggers that flag variances while they are still manageable
Data architecture	Historical mission data trapped in scattered files	Central data standards embedded permanently in the NASA ONCE database
Tooling and scalability	Spreadsheet models built from scratch for each project	The Polaris platform for standard, repeatable enterprise modeling

Executive deliverables and outcomes.

Five deliverables that kept complex programs governed.

Defensible lifecycle baselines

Total cost of ownership models covering hardware, software, production and long-term sustainment.

Predictive EVM controls

Continuous CPI and SPI tracking that gave months of lead time before variances reached budget ceilings.

A unified risk and financial architecture

Cost, schedule and technical risk combined into one operating model.

Actionable recovery plans

Specific steps to bring off-track work packages back in line, instead of passive variance reports.

Lasting organizational standards

Repeatable templates and enterprise software, Polaris and NASA ONCE, that still govern complex programs today.

Why this matters for technology spend.

Cloud, SaaS and AI spend behaves like a complex program with no baseline.

Costs are reported weeks after consumption, and nobody compares what was planned against what was delivered. The discipline that fixes it is the same.

Establish a true lifecycle baseline.
Track performance against plan every period.
Act on early variances well before the monthly bill arrives.

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