The New Integrated Program Management Report (IPMR) Data Item Description (DID), number DI-MGMT-81861 went into effect on July 1st, 2012. Early drafts of this new DID have been circulating in the public arena for some time and have been generating some buzz in the earned value community. This new document has implications for earned value management system (EVMS) reporting for contractors with Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition incentive/award programs valued at $20M or more.
The objective is to merge schedule and cost performance reporting to emphasize the integration of the two systems. To that end, the new IPMR DID combines the main elements of the former Contract Performance Report (CPR) DID (document number DI-MGMT-81466A) with the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) DID (document number DI-MGMT-81650).
As a result, the original CPR Formats 1 – 5 will now be known as IPMR Formats 1 – 5. For the most part the layouts of the existing Formats remain unchanged, with the exception of Format 3 which sees the opening up of block 6.b for change content (formerly greyed out) providing data for baseline changes going forward. Click on the image below for a full sized example for the new Format 3.
IPMR Format 6 will be the IMS report which includes the same elements as the prior IMS DID including WBS elements consistent with those in Format 1, discrete activities, critical path, relationship dependencies and so on. This will continue to be part of the monthly CDRL submissions as per contract stipulations.
IPMR Format 7 (Electronic History and Forecast File) is new and provides time-phased historical and forecasting data. This file will be provided to the government in a DoD approved electronic XML format on an annual basis.
Data elements details for Format 7 include the general elements mentioned above, subcontractor data limited to that included in the prime contractor’s EVM cost application, data elements at the WBS level including BCWS, BCWP, ACWP and ETC by month. The data range is the entire period of contractual performance for the BCWS and ETC values. There’s also a requirement for time-phased cost projection data to include historical, time-phased actual costs (ACWP) plus time-phase ETC for all WBS elements levels reported. The data in this report must reconcile with Format 1 BAC and EAC for the same period.
IPMR Guidance
As far as existing contracts are concerned, DoD contractors will need to look at updating their system description, desktop procedures and training materials to address the changes. The DID as it stands, provides descriptions of the new formats, but only has printed examples of formats 1 – 4, so the appearance of the new reports is difficult to determine. The good news is that the office of Performance Assessment and Root Cause Analysis (PARCA) intend to publish a manual that will include tailoring guidance and amplification in certain areas along with examples. This will be a welcome supplement and will be a helpful tool in supporting the change and compliance efforts.
Tools
Software vendors are aware of these changes, however this is all very new so Ten Six is talking with Deltek and Oracle Primavera to determine what these changes will mean for Cobra 5.1, MPM, Open Plan and Primavera P6. We’ll be providing further articles as the data comes in.