Eric J. Perez

Date of Award

9-15-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Systems Engineering

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Kyle F. Oyama, PhD.

Abstract

On the surface, the majority of Air Force units appear to be executing some form of project risk management (PRM). Deeper investigation exposes many of the PRM practices currently in place to often be ad hoc, and as such, have the potential to poorly inform decisions when risk data is escalated to the enterprise levels of the Air Force. Resultantly, there is inconsistency between the PRM processes practiced by Air Force units. This inconsistency is an indication of risk mishandling at the project level and erroneous risk data provided at the enterprise levels of the Air Force. It may be the case that PRM process inconsistency could be attributed to ambiguous direction, cognitive biases, flawed practices, and inadequate tools. To investigate whether this is the case, a pool of twenty subjects who represented a wide slice of Air Force acquisitions personnel were interviewed to provide insight to the underlying phenomenon causing inconsistent and deficient Air Force PRM. Specifically, the data collected was sorted and analyzed for trends and patterns concerning current PRM practices. The information from the research study can be used as a launch point to focus corrective efforts and changes on the sources of the problems identified.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENV-MS-16-S-047

DTIC Accession Number

AD1018018

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