Section 3: Support or Hinderance to Program Managers' Execution of the Program

17.	Over the past six months, to what extent have you devoted your time to the following activities?
	(CHECK ONE IN EACH ROW.)

		Very great extent	Great extent	Moderate extent	Some extent	Little or no extent	Not applicable
	a. Developing and generating information about program progress
	b. Representing your program to outsiders
	c. Interacting with prime or subcontractors
	d. Day-to-day program supervision
	e. Other activities that take significant time (Please specify below.)

18.	(If you checked "Other" in 17) Please describe in the space below. (Please avoid using acronyms.)

19.	In your opinion, what is the greatest factor in your personal success as a program manager? (Please avoid using acronyms.)

20.	In your opinion, what is the greatest obstacle to successful program management in general? (Please avoid using acronyms.)

21.	To what extent are you given authority to make decisions about tradeoffs to achieve program thresholds or objectives without relying on other organizations or program stakeholders for approval for each of the following areas?
	(CHECK ONE IN EACH ROW.)

		Very great extent	Great extent	Moderate extent	Some extent	Little or no extent	Don't know
	a. Cost
	b. Schedule
	c. Performance

22.	Have any of the following factors helped or hindered your program's success?
	(CHECK ONE IN EACH ROW.)

		Greatly helped	Helped	Neither helped nor hindered	Hindered	Greatly hindered	Don't know
	a. Revision of your program's initial cost and schedule estimates
	b. Government program staff with the right technical skills
	c. Prime and/or subcontractor staff with the right technical skills
	d. In-house support contractors with the right technical skills
	e. Oversight officials with the right management skills
	f. Priority of your system within your service or OSD
	g. Maturity of technology
	h. Reporting progress to oversight organizations
	i. Frequent instability in product requirements/capabilities
	j. Other (Please specify below.)

23.	(If you checked "Other" in 22) Please describe in the space below. (Please avoid using acronyms.)

24.	What skills are in short supply for the employees of which type of staff -- i.e., program, oversight, prime, subcontractor and/or other staff?

25.	Do you have formal authority, informal influence (e.g., persuasion, providing expert advice, etc.), or no authority or influence over any of the following?
	(CHECK ONE IN EACH ROW.)

		Formal authority	Informal influence	No authority or influence	Not applicable
	a. Developing program requirements
	b. Changes in program requirements
	c. Within program flexibility to allocate funding
	d. Developing technology
	e. Developing the Approved Program Baseline (APB)
	f. Testing requirements
	g. Developing Request for Proposals (RFPs)

		Formal authority	Informal influence	No authority or influence	Not applicable
	h. Selecting contractor sources
	i. Administering contracts
	j. Systems engineering
	k. Addressing difficult to meet requirements
	l. Program risk management
	m. Your program's representation to its stakeholders
	n. Your program's priority with lead service and joint staff

26.	Do you believe program managers should be given more authority?
	(CHECK ONLY ONE ANSWER)
	1.		Yes --> Go to Question 27.
	2.		No (GO TO QUESTION 28.)
	3.		Not applicable (GO TO QUESTION 28.)

27.	What type of authority do you believe program managers should be given and why? (Please avoid using acronyms.)

28.	To what extent are the following factors important to your program's success?
	(CHECK ONE IN EACH ROW.)

		Very great importance	Great importance	Moderate importance	Some importance	Little or no importance	Don't know
	a. Maintaining and/or improving headquarters' support from lead service
	b. Maintaining and/or improving congressional support
	c. Maintaining and/or improving joint staff support
	d. Maintaining and/or improving OSD support

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Full Report: GAO-06-110

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