A metric evaluation approach for the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act
By: Kathy E. Gordon
Contributors: Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.) 
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 83
Description: The Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) was enacted in 1990 to improve the quality      and professionalism of the Department of Defense acquisition workforce. To assess the effectiveness of      DAWIA, actual outcomes of the law must be compared to its original objectives. A particular difficulty in      evaluating public policies is that they usually cannot be measured in terms of output, such as dollars, hours, or      physical units. The primary objective of this study was to find and introduce a performance measurement      approach suitable for identifying effective metrics. A second objective was to establish a link between metrics      and outcomes. Using the performance measurement approach as a tool, an analysis attempted to link      acquisition workforce metrics with specific outcomes. To explore this issue, a literature review of relevant      organizational and management texts on public policy analysis, performance measurement and program      evaluation was conducted. Four suitable frameworks for performance measurement were found and evaluated.      The preferred approach for evaluating DAWIA was determined to be a combination of two performance      measurement approaches. The new approach is called Metric Assessment and Measurement Approach. It      includes valuable features of the two approaches, and a newly developed metric template for evaluating metrics.
Notes: "December 1997."

Thesis advisor(s): Walter E. Owen, Shu S. Liao.

Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, December 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 81)

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat reader.

US Navy (USN) author.

dk/dk cc:9116 05/12/98.