Originally Posted by
Bob Viking
I’m genuinely interested in your statement that it should be senior engineers making the decisions and running projects.
If pilots and civil servants (by your own admission) are no good at it, what would make an engineer so much better?
This might sound like I’m being precious but I’m curious.
The projects the report is talking about are things such as F35, Typhoon, T45, QNLZ, Ajax etc.
How would a military engineer be any better?
I know it’s currently fashionable to bad mouth the aircrew fraternity and attempt to challenge their hegemony at any opportunity, but to state that engineers could do a better job is going to take a bit of explaining!
I’m all ears.
BV
It's primarily because in an engineering project that involves design and build of engineering artefacts, engineers tend to have a better idea of what, when and where technical risks may arise in a programme - and what may be required to mitigate them. It's not a slur on the operators - quite possible that many "military engineers" will have little or no experience in design and build (as opposed to maintain and support, which are different things) and would be equally unsuitable. Programme and commercial risks are also sometimes best left away from engineers as well! Which is why good Engineering Project Management is one of the most difficult skills to accrue and involves gaining enough scars to know when you're about to get into difficulty, in time to avoid it.
You wouldn't ask an engineer how to employ/operate a system in combat. Why would you ask an operator how to engineer a system in a design/production environment?
It's primarily this.
Originally Posted by
ORAC
Senior Responsible Owners
23. Senior responsible owners (SROs) have responsibility for ensuring a programme meets its objectives. SROs oversee governance of programmes and steer them through key decision points, assisted by a delivery team. The NAO’s analysis showed that the median time in post for an SRO was 22 months, against median programme length of 77 months, reflecting the career path requirements of the senior officers who fill most SRO roles.
A recent departmental survey found that many SROs did not feel empowered to carry out their roles, while some felt least competent in areas important to the effective management of suppliers.54 We asked the Department what it is doing to ensure that the role of SRO becomes an important part of the CV for military officers. The Department claims it has a good record of putting SROs through Major Projects Leadership Academy training, but some of its own survey respondents reported difficulty in accessing it.
The bit in bold refers to the inability to vary finances year by year - which we all know leads to completely nugatory reprogramming of funds in year to hit control totals, while slipping projects to meet the annual spend profile. None of which SRO are able to affect (as far as I'm aware).