A comparative analysis of risk management plans within the Defense Contract Management Agency

Abstract

This thesis performs a comparative analysis of a sampling of risk management plans for strategic and critical suppliers administered by the Defense Contract Management District West (DCMDW) in order to identify the areas of highest risk and the most common tools used to mitigate risk in key processes and systems for these suppliers. The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) uses a comprehensive, inclusive, and iterative approach to risk management. It follows the Government and DoD risk management premise of using a five-step approach to risk management and the basic idea of identifying and assessing key processes/systems whose risk, either through probability or potential impact, offers the most cause for concern from a performance, schedule, or cost perspective. It employs current information technology, Risk Assessment and Management Program (RAMP) to provide consistency, commonality, access, and comparability to its risk management process. Performance and schedule, product support and supplier quality assurance for product quality, and delivery were the areas of highest risk for DCMA. The most commonly applied risk handling tools indicated in the RAMP database were areas associated with analysis, monitoring, and surveillance activities before final inspection: "Data Analysis", "Product Audits", "System Evaluation", and "Corrective Action"