Brad Clark

Journal Articles

• An Overview of the Schedule Compliance Risk Assessment Methodology (SCRAM)

  Schedule slippage is an unfortunate reality for many large development programs. The Australian Defence Materiel Organisation Schedule Compliance Risk Assessment Methodology (SCRAM) provides a framework for identifying and communicating the root causes of schedule slippage and recommendations for going forward to Program and Executive-level management. It is based on a repeatable process that uses a root cause analysis of schedule slippage model to locate factors that impact program schedule along with a “health check” of the documented schedule, assessing its preparation and probability distribution of completion dates. SCRAM can be used at the commencement of a program to validate a proposed schedule and identify potential risks, during program execution as a “health check”, or as a diagnostic tool to identify root causes when schedule slippage occurs. To date, SCRAM has been applied to a number of major development acquisition programs in Australia and the United States. According to one documented report, seventy-eight percent of US Department of Defense Programs have experienced some form of schedule slippage [1]. Schedule slippage is a symptom of any number of problems or causes occurring on a project.