metrics and ultimately risk injur- ing the company’s financial health and reputation. The engineer, therefore, needs to remain cognizant of, and adhere to, cost, schedule, and scope constraints. As I often advise those I mentor, when assigned a design or analysis task, the first question that an engineer should ask is, “What is my budget, deadline, and scope of work?” This question should be definitized prior to com- mencing the engineering task. Let’s explore in greater detail each element that will promote the engineer’s suc- Work scope refers to the task(s) necessary to effectively and success- fully address the statement of work for the engineering analysis. The work scope should consider any relevant requirements of the deliverable prod- uct. The work scope of the analysis should include neither more nor less than the statement of work specifies. Therefore, the engineer must under- stand what the analysis needs to ad- dress based on the work scope—and what it doesn’t—and then structure the objective of the analysis accord- ingly. cessful execution of a task. Contractual Scope
A common pitfall for engineers is to become starry-eyed and include analysis tasks that are “nice-to-have” but not necessary or directly relevant to the scope of work. Engineers risk going overboard when we do not keep our eyes fixed on the objective(s) of the analysis during execution. It is imperative that the engineer not get caught up in any tangential questions that are not within the line of sight of the objective—as nice as it might be to have them answered. This helps the engineer perform the right analy- sis the first time and enables him or her to execute the analysis efficiently and effectively. I was in a program meeting earlier this year that needed to answer why the engineering analysis team was not completing a large amount of analysis within a very short schedule. The program expected a large, de- tailed modeling effort to be started and finished within only a couple of weeks. The worst part was that the expected work did not address the contractual statement of work for the analysis. (Note: This happens when the analysis scope, milestones, and inchstones are not defined by engi- neers cognizant of the analysis or proper methodology.)
Experience pays dividends when the engineer knows how to get effi- ciently and effectively from Point A (present-day starting point) to Point B (the objective outlined in the state- ment of work). Sometimes that’s a hand calculation or spreadsheet-level analysis using simplifying assump- tions or empirical correlations; at other times, it’s a simple modeling ef- fort or scaling of a prior analysis; and at still other times, it’s a full-on de- tailed, complex computational model- ing analysis. Experience enables the engineer to judiciously determine what degree of analysis resolution is necessary and affordable given cost, schedule, and scope constraints. After managing the program’s ex- pectations and properly realigning the expected work scope with the statement of work during the pro- gram meeting, the team’s analysis effort was successfully completed, documented, and delivered on time and within budget. Managing the program’s expectations comes with the territory. Cost of the Work Cost is derived from the type of defense contract awarded by the U.S. Government for a given effort. There are predominantly two types of defense contracts awarded: (1) firm-fixed-price contracts, and (2) cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts. Firm-fixed-price contracts provide, as the name implies, a firm price for a contractor’s product or service. Fixed-price contracts are preferred by the government because price is not adjustable according to the con- tractor’s execution of the contract. Fixed-price contracts are most ap- plicable to production-phase work of established products, technologies, and manufacturing processes. Cost- plus-fixed-fee contracts, in contrast, pay the contractor a fixed fee at the onset and reimburse allowable in- curred costs according to the terms outlined in the contract. Cost-plus contracts are more suitable for devel- opment-phase work where products,
42 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | July-August 2025
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