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DOE PROJECTMANAGEMENT NEWSSEPTEMBER 2019Promoting Project Management ExcellenceIN THIS ISSUE:Director's CornerMII Cost Estimating System – What isMII?.2PARS with Empower Update – It isabout the Data!.3Learning Nucleus Training Video forAll Users – Training Requests.4Continuous LearningOpportunities.4Training Opportunities.5Director's CornerAfter spending the better part of a year in the Office ofEnvironmental Management (EM) it is great to be back, fulltime, in the project management business, with the Office ofProject Management (PM). That said, my time in EM wasinvaluable and provided me great perspective, a Programperspective. It allowed me an opportunity to work withsome great people at Headquarters and at our sites. Sufficeto say, there was never a dull moment, and I learned a lot.I am also thrilled that summer is in full swing in our Nation’scapital. I love the heat and humidity. I also keep a close eyeout for and monitor the potential for pop-up thunderstorms,which are the norm, this time of year. Similar to taking stepsto cope with Mother Nature’s unpredictability, a goodproject management team is constantly managing risk –planning for risk, assessing (identifying and analyzing) risks,developing risk handling strategies, and monitoring risks todetermine how they have changed. Risk management is acontinuous process running throughout the project’s life.If it looks like it’s going to rain, I avoid the risk (I don’t gooutside), I mitigate the risk (I carry an umbrella), or I pay theprice and get wet and have funded contingency (a change ofclothes readily available) without missing a milestone (ormeeting!).Contact Us.6Managing a project’s cost estimate is another process thatshould be maintained throughout the life of a project.Managing the estimate involves continually updating theestimate with actual data as it becomes available, revisingthe estimate to reflect changes, and analyzing differencesbetween estimated and actual costs. Updating the costestimate serves multiple purposes, including validating itsaccuracy, and archiving cost and technical data for use infuture estimates. This is not only a best practice, but is alsoa requirement outlined in OMB’s Capital ProgrammingGuide: Supplement to Circular A-11, Planning, Budgeting,and Acquisition of Capital Assets.This month’s newsletter includes articles on the U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers MII cost estimating system and updateson PARS with Empower.Keep charging!Pa l Bos

MII Cost Estimating System – What is MII?Mike Fenn, Office of Project Assessment PM-20You may have run into the acronym MII or “M two” andMCACES in your independent cost review (ICR) andindependent cost estimate (ICE) reports prepared by theOffice of Project Management. So what is MII and why isPM is referring to this software in the ICE report?When PM develops an ICE or conducts an ICR, PM oftenrelies on cost estimating subject matter experts (SMEs) toassist and complete specific portions of the estimate orreview. Many of our cost estimating SMEs utilize the MIIsoftware to prepare their estimates and when the softwareis used, it is documented in the report as the tool used forpreparing the estimate.MII is a cost estimating tool designed and developed bycost engineers for cost engineers. When the firstgeneration of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)cost estimating software needed an upgrade, instead ofselecting a software development contractor to take thelead on the project, USACE contracted with a costengineering firm, Project Time & Cost, Inc. (PT&C), whichhas expertise in both cost estimating and software, todevelop the application.PT&C engineers worked closely with a team of USACE costengineers to design and develop a state-of-the-art, detailedcost estimating application to meet the needs andrequirements of the USACE military and civil works costengineering community.MII is the second generation of the Micro-Computer AidedCost Estimating System (MCACES) that is PC-basedsoftware application used by the Army Corps of Engineersand architect-engineer (A-E) firms providing support toUSACE for the preparation of detailed construction costestimates. MII provides an integrated cost estimatingsystem (software and databases) that meets the USACErequirements for preparing cost estimates. The software isused by many of the USACE districts, and it will soon be arequirement for all USACE districts to use MII, as well as allarchitect-engineering (A-E) firms performing design workfor the USACE.Promoting Project Management ExcellenceMII is being used for military, civil works, and environmentalprojects by USACE and its contractors, but its use is notlimited to DOD. It also has been used by other federalagencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency andU.S. Department of Energy.MII is a Windows application and allows complete flexibilityto perform any work breakdown structure to create aproject, cost items, crews, labor and equipment and any typeof desired markup. The software is flexible to create sitespecific unit prices, modification of equipment costs forproject specific circumstances, and adjust crew for overtimeand shift differential.The MII software offers estimators and engineers greaterinsight into the costs that make up their estimates. Featuresinclude:Estimates organized in a flexible, user defined logicaltree structureCustomizable, user defined work breakdown structure(WBS)Unlimited number of WBS levelsMultiple views of an estimate, including:project itemscontractorsConstruction Specifications Institute (CSI) tasksassembliescrewslaborequipmentThe software is also used for the preparation of programmingestimates, current working estimates, independentgovernment cost estimates, and change order modificationestimates. MII also offers the ability to easily access, update,and archive cost estimates, as well as the ability for multiplecost engineers to work on the same estimate.PM’s use of MII is often to prepare a bottom up estimate forspecific elements of a cost estimate or to perform a detailedreview of a bottom up cost estimate in cases of an ICR. Wehave a number of PM analysts trained on the use of MII andwe are looking to expand our capability. In addition, some ofthe Program Office cost teams, like Office of EnvironmentalManagement's Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC),have internal DOE estimators trained on use of MII.2

PARS with Empower Update –It is about the Data!Matthew (Zac) West, Office of Project Controls (PM-30)The enhanced PARS application with the analytical toolEmpower from Encore Analytics was successfullycompleted on June 3, 2019. With its deployment, users aregetting a better understanding of their contractor’s projectperformance using the Empower analytics. Some of theissues that have been identified using the Empower toolsinclude:Data structure issues provide difficulty ensuringaccurate dataSystem issues make it difficult to ensure accurate dataAdjustments to improve the reporting and informationare neededOver 30% of DOE projects have data structure issues thatimpede reporting accurate project performance. While theBIRST tool would overlook these issues, Empoweridentifies and flags them so that the necessarymodifications can be made.To illustrate, consistent with earned value managementbest practices, Empower looks for a single level-oneelement in both the work breakdown structure (WBS) andorganizational breakdown structure (OBS). In some cases,project uploads included multiple level-one elements in theWBS and/or OBS. The most prevalent fault noted in theuploaded data structures in Empower are work package(WP) or control account (CA) elements without the parentelement identified or included. To get an accuratereporting of the performance management baseline, thehierarchical structure of the elements, for both cost andschedule, must be correct.Another area observed is changes to the WBS elementnames in the schedule, but not in the cost processor, as theproject progresses.In some cases, these changes were made to help gainvisibility in the schedule, but the team did not make theupdate in the cost tool and cost/schedule integration wasbroken. PARS with Empower checks for this and helps thecontractor and Federal team see the structure gaps.For some projects, the structure provides a good WBS andOBS or the project team resolves the structure issuesidentified and system gaps are revealed to the user. In oneexample, resources were misaligned with procurementsunder materials and resources under ODC’s.Reporting by Element of Cost helps to see these issues inthe system. As the structure issues in DOE projects areimproved, it is likely that systems issues will be identifiedwhere an integrated project team will need to review theprocedures or the system to make sure it provides anaccurate representation to all users.After structure and system issues are addressed, theproject teams should get to the point where minoradjustments are made to further improve reporting for allusers, be it to the FPD, program or DOE headquarters.These issues and improvements will likely take a fewmonths to identify and fix and to make sure users at alllevels are getting the knowledge to make the best decisionsfor the project.Training continues with 194 current PARS users havingtaken the training to date. The transition training forcurrent PARS users will wrap up in September. The lastcourse in September is online for two and a quarter hourswith sessions each day starting September 23rd through26th. This course will start the shift to a PARS user course,which does not require a prior knowledge of the tool. Thecourse is expected to be available in the Decembertimeframe via desktop delivery.For those interested in one of the 20 seats remaining inSeptember, please contact matthew.west@hq.doe.gov.Also, as always, the current PARS schedule for uploads andassessments due dates is located at:(https://community.max.gov/x/m4lIY).Promoting Project Management Excellence3