Discontinuity management
Jeffrey O. Grady · 2020
A program discontinuity is an interruption in planned activities. It is a condition that precludes continued efficient execution of work in accordance with the predetermined plan. The three principal program planning focuses are technical or product performance, cost, and schedule. Most everything that can go wrong in terms of plan quality, execution faithfulness and changed conditions can be expressed in these terms. The Department of Defense (DoD) requires its contractors to use a certified Cost/Schedule Control System for tracking and reporting program cost and schedule information. The information these systems produce is adequate to detect possible or realized discontinuities from these two triggers. DoD customers also encourage the use of a technique called technical performance measurement to detect problems in satisfying the key technical product requirements. The history of past values and future predictions of these parameters is reported periodically to the customer in graphical form.