A  scientific team kept alive its dream of building a full time underwater network of observatories for years only to finally receive the necessary funding and backing to do so, but with the responsibilities that come with a publically
funded program. To this team, the concepts of an Integrated Master Schedule, Activity-Based-Costing and Earned Value Performance Management were alien.

Even so, the team embraced these principals and more in order to forward their cause.  These people are Difference Makers...  the folks who are willing to draw in a deep breath and do what it takes to make it work.  The end result… fully integrated schedules and cost plans, monthly CPR Format 1 reports and formal Variance Analysis... and construction of that full time underwater network of observatories.

The rules of the game are simple... a pharmaceutical company can protect a compound for 20 years via patent, yet it can take 13-14 years to find the best application for the compound, complete all levels of all testing and receive necessary FDA approval.  The remainder of the 20 year cycle is all the company has left to recoup its investment which can mount into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The first, internally initiated solution was to build schedules in excruciating detail that spanned all performing departments for the full 13-14 years, but the ultimate solution was much simpler.  The assessment discovered that the most costly failure points were common and stemmed not from any organization's internal management, but rather the intra-communications between the supporting organizations.

Senior most management and the R&D organization met annually to determine the budget.  Though the R&D department always came to the table with a higher number in mind, not once had it received a penny more than the number already pre-determined by management.  Why?  R&D could not justify its numbers.  It knew it needed more, but could not paint the picture as to why.

Then R&D implemented a resource loaded schedule driven, ABC costing solution that aligned projected costs to the goals and objectives of upper management by product line.  Armed with this information, the R&D department not only got its first increase over the predetermined budget, it got every penny requested for every product line.  Why?  Because it was negotiating from a position of strength.  Management could not argue the costs required to meet its own objectives.