Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC)

Program Description: Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) provide scientific research and analysis to the federal government, and assist with system development and acquisition. They provide high quality technical work that cannot easily be provided by other public or private entities.

Program Support: Quantech analysts are currently providing financial management, cost estimating and program management support at a Department of Defense (DoD)-sponsored FFRDC. Analysts have implemented a sound cost estimating environment and develop, maintain and update cost estimates of selected programs and work closely with the Technical and Program Leads to scrub requirements, execute trade-off analyses and perform what-if drills. In addition to the cost estimating function, our analysts also provide financial management, budget development and execution support. These efforts include budget formulation involving the preparation and analyses of annual and multi-year budget estimates, tracking and analyzing program execution, and reporting cost variances against the program plan.  Quantech also assists with transition and implementation planning.

Our analysts are also assisting in the development of a Laboratory-wide program management initiative. In addition to participating in process definition and documentation, our analysts participated in the development of a Laboratory-wide Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), identifying and documenting requirements, developing tools and corresponding documentation (e.g., user guides), and providing guidance and support to the technical community in the use of these processes and tools.  Specifically, Quantech has developed a cost estimating tool designed for use specifically within the Research & Development (R&D) environment and has already conducted initial training on the use of the tool.

A Quantech analyst is the primary point of contact for business and functional requirements and will play a key role in the design and implementation of a Laboratory–specific planning and reporting software tool currently being evaluated by the Laboratory.  The Quantech team is providing support to this initiative by documenting the current As-Is business environment and defining the desired To-Be end state, including identifying business processes and functional requirements, developing architectural and functional diagrams and participating in software evaluations to meet the business needs.