Seaport E Quality Assurance Program

The ATC Team is a diverse assembly of highly skilled companies poised to bring a variety of Virtual SYSCOM experience and expertise to bear on virtually any Virtual SYSCOM project.

Capability to Manage the Effort ATC’s management controls are designed to ensure each task is completed successfully. Our approach is to determine task functionality, required capabilities, and resource requirements and then assign responsibility. Constant customer and ATC management team oversight is provided via ATC’s collaborative web site. Formal management procedures provide the means for ensuring efficient program and project planning, schedule maintenance, and reporting. ATC's management controls and practices result in the development of a detailed integrated master plan (IMP) and integrated master schedule (IMS) for every DO issued. Each IMP/IMS specifies the procedures to be used by the ATC Team to ensure superior program support, deliverable quality, schedule adherence, and cost containment. The IMP/IMS process will also:

Provide coordinated internal task management procedures
Ensure that all managers agree on task approach
Provide cost controls (earned value) and visibility of costs at the individual DO level
Consider previous similar tasks to avoid duplication
Prioritize tasking to maximize effective application of team resources

Risk Management ATC’s corporate-wide risk management plan and approach provide a continuous process of risk identification, assessment, mitigation and its implementation, and monitoring. The overall objective is to minimize the effects of program risks by defining systematic risk management processes to address four specific areas: technical, managerial, performance and cost. We define risk as any event that has some probability of adverse impact on a program’s cost, schedule, or delivered product performance. Effective risk management supports the program’s ability to meet its objectives on time and on budget.

Ability to Manage Change to Preserve Stability and Maintain Technical Expertise in the Workforce. Our approach is based on promoting continuity of the ATC team work force in order to provide stability during the inevitable changes that occur. Our Team’s flexible, responsive management approach is designed to accommodate change, regardless of whether the change is related to a new customer, work, process, or infrastructure.

Our primary management responsibility is to maintain quality of service on existing task orders. The ATC team’s plan is to emphasize recruitment, delegation of authority, continuity of talent and retention incentives. High performance begins with attracting the best-qualified professionals for the work. The present labor market requires a perennial search mechanism and periodic re-tuning of the compensation packages for highly qualified staff. Acquiring talent is facilitated by a policy that permits the greatest possible exercise of authority at the Task Order and integrated project team levels. Morale and retention are improved when corporations clearly define requirements, set realistic goals and free the engineers and technical directors to do the work. An attractive mix of retention incentives can extend length of service for personnel on high performance teams. ATC’s employee benefits, recognition policies and performance awards complete the suite of personnel management tools. The ATC team is committed to a policy that consciously seeks to reduce the rotation of senior technical staff from task order to task order. Workforce stability, continuity of institutional knowledge, the integrity of project teams and the concurrent cost savings are too important to be compromised. It is often cost effective to encourage existing project teams to offer creative responses to new requirements and eliminate the additional expense of issuing new task orders. The ATC team’s management is prepared to consult objectively with the Navy on nontraditional alternatives as it considers the preparation of new task orders.

Ability to Monitor and Maximize Quality Regardless of size, task orders warrant full management attention from both a government and a contractor perspective. From a cost viewpoint, task order size does not necessarily reflect the importance of a task. Innovative solutions and cost-saving initiatives can be sought out by government or contractor at any level of tasking. Service providers must maintain awareness that the award of competitive task orders will be based heavily on a contractor’s past performance.

Budget Maintenance and Status Reporting In order to perform DOs within the assigned budget and also accomplish the cost efficiency discussed above, it is necessary to account for and control our orders using the DCAA approved KCS Closure cost accounting system. This cost data includes a breakdown for each DO by total funding, expenditures for a given period by labor category, cumulative expenditures, funds remaining, trends and time sheet reports. ATC accomplishes cost control by reviewing DO cost summaries each week at the Program Review meeting and reporting status as a standing agenda item in the bi-weekly PM-Corporate status meeting. ATC will accomplish cost management by taking corrective action at the earliest time that cost data projections (reviewed weekly in Program Review meetings) indicate potential cost-related problems. This process assures continuous monitoring of DO costs incurred and their validation by the PM in conjunction with ATC's Contract/Financial Manager. Each DO will be assigned a job number against which all costs will be accumulated. All personnel will complete time sheets, and all charges (labor hours, travel, and materials) will reflect appropriate job numbers and will be verified by the individual task leader (TL) and approved by the PM. This provides a clear audit trail for all labor costs. All cost-related functions address both the overall contract and individual DOs. Required DO progress, cost, and schedule data will be generated and submitted as required for visibility of actual versus planned performance and expenditures.

Approach to Guarantee Responsiveness to and Cooperation with Customers The ATC team recommends a partnering approach with the Virtual SYSCOM. The Virtual SYSCOM contracting officer, contracting officer's technical representative (COTR), program office and contractor will meet after task order award to discuss mutual expectations. The parties will mutually develop schedules, performance goals, identify personnel resource qualifications, and establish cooperative ways to supply the required deliverables during and upon completion of the task performance. The partnering approach and the customized task order management provide tailored responses built to suit the Virtual SYSCOM customer, not merely fit in with a contractor’s preconceived organization chart.

Approach to Problem Resolution When problems do arise, the TL will have authority to address them at the lowest possible level. If a TL is unable to resolve a problem, then any member of the government team can alert the ATC program manager who will be empowered to act on behalf of the team. If resolution cannot be achieved at that level, the program manager will meet with the COTR. Failure to resolve the matter at that level will elevate the problem directly to the president of ATC who will meet with the COTR or Commanding Officer as needed. If the situation cannot be resolved at this level, ATC will be amenable to alternative dispute resolution practices including conciliation, facilitation, mediation, and mini-trials in order to settle the issue.

Flow Down of Incentives to Team partners Our approach to creating incentives for team members is simple: 100% pass through. When an ATC team member finds a cost savings improvement, ATC will pass 100% of any monetary award to that team member. This includes value engineering change proposals (VECPs) and process improvements. Members of the team will be permitted to institute these changes in other Navy/government organizations.

Seaport E Quality Assurance Program

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