Predictors and Predictive Effects of Attitudinal Inconsistency Towards Organizational Change

Studies have largely portrayed individual resistance as a pervasive, irrational, and problematic response to organizational change initiatives. The current study confronts this interpretation with a model of attitudinal inconsistency that provides a more holistic perspective of the individual during times of change. Inconsistency reveals the degree to which the mental evaluations of a change initiative may conflict and produce weak attitudinal foundations to govern behavior. Measuring affective-cognitive consistency, the tests in this study demonstrate that employees may form inconsistent attitudes towards a change initiative. Inconsistency relates negatively to the perceived quality of management transition techniques such as participation, communication, structured procedure, managerial supportiveness, and supervisor supportiveness. Consistency also seems to serve a role in the process of attitudinal change. Consistency partially mediates all five of the above predictors of openness to change. Post hoc analysis provides further evidence of the importance of a supportive culture in reducing inconsistency. Taken together, these results should cause some pause in the criticism of resistance. The mental processes behind perceived resistant attitudes and behaviors may display consequential dimensions beyond uniform negativity

Improving Software Cost Estimating Techniques in Defense Programs

Symposium PresentationApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Improving Software Cost Estimating Techniques in Defense Programs

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumAs software becomes more ubiquitous in defense programs, there is a need to improve the accuracy and reliability of methods for estimating software size and cost. Historically, practitioners have used defined distributions in their estimating software to simulate likely outcomes. This research identifies new distributions of likely software costs and effective sizes through an analysis of Cost and Software Data Reports (CSDRs) as well as demonstrating the most appropriate distribution given certain program characteristics known at the genesis of the project. By utilizing various descriptive statistics and statistical tests, this research shows there are distributions that are more closely tailored to the actual qualities of a software program. In some instances, a broad and general distribution is sufficient; however, there are specific commodities, contractors, and system types that are distinctly different and require additional analysis. Overall, this research intends to equip practitioners with an arsenal of distributions and statistical information that will lead them to apply the best model to predict software size and cost, all with the goal of improving overall accuracy.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Improving Software Cost Estimating Techniques in Defense Programs

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research SymposiumAs software becomes more ubiquitous in defense programs, there is a need to improve the accuracy and reliability of methods for estimating software size and cost. Historically, practitioners have used defined distributions in their estimating software to simulate likely outcomes. This research identifies new distributions of likely software costs and effective sizes through an analysis of Cost and Software Data Reports (CSDRs) as well as demonstrating the most appropriate distribution given certain program characteristics known at the genesis of the project. By utilizing various descriptive statistics and statistical tests, this research shows there are distributions that are more closely tailored to the actual qualities of a software program. In some instances, a broad and general distribution is sufficient; however, there are specific commodities, contractors, and system types that are distinctly different and require additional analysis. Overall, this research intends to equip practitioners with an arsenal of distributions and statistical information that will lead them to apply the best model to predict software size and cost, all with the goal of improving overall accuracy.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Improving Acquisitions In Science And Technology Programs: Creating Unique Cost Factors To Improve Resource Allocation Decisions

Acquisition Research Program Sponsored Report SeriesSponsored Acquisition Research & Technical ReportsCost factors are a common technique employed in Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) cost estimating. The extant suite of available factors, however, primarily consists of development factors from the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the life cycle. This study expands the set of factors available to analysts by producing cost factors germane to programs early in the life cycle (i.e. Science and Technology (S&T) programs) and also creates factors for the Production phase of the life cycle. Cost factor development in S&T programs provides unique challenges due to non-standard reporting requirements. To meet these challenges, this study first mapped S&T cost data to create a new, suggested Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that mirrors the WBS structure utilized in MDAPs via Mil-Std-881. From this, it was determined that two cost factors commonly utilized in MDAP estimates, Systems Engineering/Program Management (SE/PM) and Systems Test and Evaluation (ST&E) could be derived for the S&T programs. The creation of factors for the production phase of the life cycle resulted in 1033 new cost factors from a multitude of diverse programs. Factors were developed by commodity type (aircraft, missile, UAV, space, and ship), contract type (various), contractor type (prime and sub), and Service (Air Force, Army, and Navy). Combining the results of the previous EMD factors developed (Markman et al., 2019) with the two new phases developed here (S&T; Production) results in a robust cost factor toolkit across the acquisition life cycle spectrum.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited