Integrated Baseline Review Blog Series, Part 4: Corrective Action Planning

Continuing with part four of a four-part blog series, I have been writing about preparing for an Integrated Baseline Review (IBR), and how unnerving and time-consuming it is as your team is collecting data, preparing Control Account Manager (CAM) notebooks, and sitting in mock interviews.

We have identified four key IBR component services to set your organization up for success:

• IBR Training
• Practice Interviews
• Control Account Manager (CAM) Notebook preparation
• Corrective Action Planning

In the final blog of this series, I want to spend time concentrating on Corrective Action Planning following an IBR and how best to communicate the plan with the customer.

Typically, the project managers from both sides determine whether the IBR objectives have been met. A component of this requires an agreement between both parties that a plan is to be established to handle risks and concerns identified during the IBR process. Some examples of these items include data integrity, poorly defined scope, or lack of a risk register. They can also range in severity, be applicable to only the project being reviewed, or organizational-wide systemic issues. During the out brief the customer presents their findings, either in the form of a Corrective Action Request (CAR) or a Discrepancy Report (DR) and requests a corrective action plan (CAP) from the contractor.

The development and communication of the corrective action plan is crucial to not only closing out the IBR, but also maintaining a favorable relationship with your customer and Contracting Officer (CO). Demonstration to your CO that your project team, and organization, are actively resolving identified issues goes a long way in establishing and maintaining trust.

Hopefully, the project manager has a corrective plan template to begin populating, but if not that’s fine. There are a few key fields for your CAP:

• Description of the problem
• Approach to resolution
• Deliverable or metric(s)
• Responsible individual
• Completion date(s)

The purpose of the CAP is to show your customer and CO that your team has a plan in place to address all items identified in the IBR, in a timely manner.

Next is communicating the plan with the customer. This is your chance to build trust and confidence in your team, and I recommend having a discussion and reviewing each action item to ensure that nothing is missed. Don’t leave your CAP in an email inbox. Have regular meetings to provide the latest status, updates to the schedule, and any help you need removing roadblocks. Again, this is a great opportunity to show your customer how the team is moving forward.

Our project management professionals can support your team as they prepare for an Integrated Baseline Review. We provide IBR support training, conduct practice CAM interviews, establish CAM notebooks, and assist in preparing your CAP.

Whether you are looking to prepare your team for an upcoming IBR or enhance the skills of your organization, Pinnacle has training and learning solutions to meet your needs. You can find a complete list of our training classes here.

Find out how we can help improve core competencies of your staff while improving productivity throughout your organization.

or for help with corrective action planning for your Integrated Baseline Review.