President’s Message
Meghan Kennedy, Chapter President
Happy 2018, and welcome back to our chapter newsletter! The new board is pleased to revive the quarterly newsletter to keep our membership better informed, so here it goes. While this publication was on hiatus, our chapter was not, so in this issue we’ll get you up to speed on all of the recent (and even not-so-recent) happenings. Inside you’ll find an introduction to our new board members elected this past Fall, an update from our vice president on upcoming events and training, a word from our Regional Director, a summary of our chapter’s monthly lunchtime programs over the past year, and more. We can’t wait to get 2018 started, along with all of the exciting events we have planned for the year. I encourage each of you to attend one of our events, contact a board member with an idea, or even submit an article for this newsletter. I especially hope to see many of you at our Annual Chapter Meeting at the end of the month. Your participation is what makes this chapter great!
Upcoming Events
Annual Membership Meeting: The Washington Capital Area Chapter will hold its 2018 Annual Meeting at 6 PM on 28 February at the Washington Golf and Country Club, 3017 N Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22207. The Board will update the membership on Chapter accomplishments in 2017, and plans for 2018. Annual awards will then be presented, followed by a guest speaker and light refreshments. We look forward to seeing you there!
March Luncheon: TBD
ICEAA Association Award Nominations: Due 18 MAR
DC Regional Symposium: 11 APR, Arlington, VA
Early Registration for 2018 Workshop: Through 1 MAY
New Board Introduction
By Meghan Kennedy, Washington Capital Area Chapter President
New Chapter Board Elected
Following our chapter board election and with the start of the new business year, the board would like to announce some changes and welcome new members. First, Aileen Donohue, our Social Chair is now the Treasurer, replacing Mike Yanavitch.
Second, the Board would like to welcome three new members to our ranks. Mr. Michael “Jake” Mender will be replacing Kammy Mann as Secretary. Zach Jasnoff will be replacing Anne-Marie Adams as Membership Chair. And Omar Akbik will be replacing Aileen as Social Chair.
Jake Mender is an Operations Research Analyst with the Army’s 21st Theater Sustainment Command. Previously he was an Operations Research Analyst with the Naval Center for Cost Analysis. He holds a MS in Systems Engineering from GWU, and a BS in Applied Economics from Ithaca College.
Zachary Jasnoff is Vice President, Professional Services for PRICE Systems, LLC. He has previously held roles with Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and JPMorgan Chase. He holds an MSE in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an MBA from American University and a BA from Villanova.
Omar Akbik is a Lead Analyst with Technomics, Inc. Prior to joining Technomics, Mr. Akbik worked as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, a master’s degree in finance from the University of Melbourne, and is a Certified Cost Estimator/Analyst.
The returning members of the board are: Meghan Kennedy, President; Tim Anderson, Vice President; Ann Hawpe, Program Chair; Kevin Coonce, Web Manager; and Dave Stem, Past President.
A huge thanks to our departing members for all their efforts over the last two-year term. And welcome to our new and returning board members! We’re looking forward to a great year!
Vice President’s Report
Timothy Anderson, Chapter Vice President
Happy 2018 everyone! 2017 was a great year to be an ICEAA member, and 2018 should be no exception, as we have some outstanding events coming up in the next several months. Our biggest event of the year is our annual meeting, which will take place at the Washington Golf and Country Club in Arlington, VA, on February 28. Keep an eye on your email inbox for an invitation to the annual meeting, and be sure to RSVP so that we can plan on you being there. The annual meeting will include: a report on the state of the chapter; an introduction to the new slate of chapter officers; presentation of annual chapter awards; a dynamic guest speaker; and excellent food and drink. Our guest speaker this year is Jamie Morin, formerly of the OSD CAPE, now Vice President of the Defense Systems Operations group at The Aerospace Corporation.
In addition to the chapter’s annual meeting, we are in the planning stages for a one-day regional symposium in the spring or summer. The mini-symposium will be open to other surrounding chapters, and will feature an agenda of excellent speakers and topics. We are looking forward to making this happen. More to come.
Also on the topic of training, the Washington Capital Area Chapter has teamed with Technomics, Inc. to provide training opportunities to the members of the chapter. The Technomics Training Institute provides specialized training sessions every month, on topics relevant to cost estimators, and particularly focused on CCE/A exam topics. The Washington Capital Area Chapter helps Technomics by announcing the training events to our membership. If you have not yet attended one of the Technomics Training Institute sessions, you are highly encouraged to do so. The events are free of charge, and provide focused instruction over a two hour period in the evening.
I look forward to serving you this year and am excited to see many of you at the upcoming annual meeting.
Call for Members
The Washington Capital Area Chapter is actively looking for new members to join our Chapter. If you are an ICEAA Member in the Washington DC area and not already aligned with one of our local Chapters we would love to have you join us and take advantage of our many events, seminars and training opportunities. Please contact Zachary Jasnoff at 856.912.0974 and he will provide you with more information.
Regional Director’s Report
Rick Collins, Region 2 Director, ICEAA Board
I’m guessing that 2018 is starting much like 2017 ended for many of us doing our best to deliver the most credible, defensible analysis and actionable advice to the myriad of decision makers who have come to rely on our product and candid perspective. That is, the demand for our goodness remains strong and will continue to test our capacity to deliver what’s needed when it’s needed. So, we start 2018 with the same ‘good’ problem (i.e., our community of practice is relevant) and impetus to do our work smarter, better and faster.
I think it’s reasonable to wonder if and how ICEAA can contribute to the “smarter, better and faster.” More generally, I think it’s reasonable to question whether ICEAA, on the both the local and national levels, delivers value that makes a difference for you and therefore your organization. I’m not suggesting that it does or doesn’t, but the fact that you (or your organization) invested in a membership implies some expectation of a return on that investment.
You may or may not be aware that ICEAA’s National Board of Directors employs a compass known as the ICEAA 2015-2019 Strategic Plan to ensure that the association is moving in the right direction.
The plan includes the three strategic goals shown below and objectives/actions associated with each goal.
- To create a community of technical excellence
- To create a community of collaboration
- To create a community of relevance
I, along with my National ICEAA Board of Directors (BOD) colleagues, would be greatly interested in your take on: a) what aspects of the plan are most (and least) important to you; b) what aspects of the plan represent achievements to date that have been meaningful to you; and c) what if anything you deem important is missing.
The plan is a short, easy read, so I highly encourage you to make time to review it and provide your responses to the aforementioned questions directly to me at rcollins@technomics.net. I can assure you that I, as your BOD representative, will give serious consideration to any ideas that translate to ICEAA delivering greater value to you and other members.
Without going into all the details, I want to inform you of a couple important, ongoing activities that support achievement of the technical excellence strategic goal.
The first is an effort to define the requirements for the next version of Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (CEBoK), including improvements to both content and user experience, the latter of which will be accomplished by offering CEBoK via a wiki software platform that should also enable more frequent and efficient CEBoK enhancement. The requirements generation work is being performed by a committee of notable, experienced government, FFRDC and industry representatives.
The second effort is development of the Software Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (sCEBoK) and a companion Software Specialty Certification exam. You are likely well aware of the fact that the ever evolving nature of software development/maintenance processes and environments represents a continuing and very real challenge to our community’s ability to understand cost and schedule implications for both weapons and automated information systems.
This exciting and admittedly overdue effort to improve the cost analysis community’s competency is being performed by a committee of software savvy representatives, U.S. and international, from government, FFRDCs, academia and industry. Seven draft sCEBoK modules were presented last June at ICEAA’s 2017 Professional Development & Training Workshop held in Portland, OR. These modules, available at http://www.iceaaonline.com/pdx17training/ , included:
- Solution Based Estimation
- Estimation Methods
- Introduction to Sizing Physical and Functional Methods
- Estimation Maturity Model
- Basis of Estimate
- Metrics Collection
- Benchmarking/Cost Drivers
I have a couple final notes in closing. Although you’ve probably missed the boat for presenting a paper at ICEAA’s 2018 Professional Development & Training Workshop (June 12-15) in Phoenix, AZ. , I highly recommend you do whatever you can to maximize the probability of your organization financing your attendance. This annual event represents a tremendous learning and networking opportunity, particularly for those of you in the early stages of your career.
If you don’t have the opportunity to present a technical paper or co-instruct a CEBoK module, there are other opportunities to contribute to the success of the conference (e.g., co-chair a paper or training track) and possibly use this volunteer role to justify your attendance. If you are fortunate to attend, but don’t have the opportunity to be a speaker or trainer, you should use this opportunity to listen, learn and be inspired to be on stage in June 2019!
Finally, and for the same reasons I’ve cited above, I strongly encourage you to take full advantage of the lunch presentation series sponsored by the DC area chapter and applaud chapter leadership for what is by all accounts the most extensive speaker series offered by any ICEAA chapter in the U.S. and abroad.