The Fundamentals of Developing Operational Solutions for the Government

The Fundamentals of Developing Operational Solutions for the Government guides professionals on how to use operations research to solve problems and capture opportunities for government customers. The governments of modern democratic nations manage large complex societal operations to offer national defense, social services, infrastructure sustainment, law enforcement, monetary control, and other benefits for their citizens. The United States government alone spends over $1 trillion per year on these discretionary activities. Within all the spending, deliveries, and oversight, some operational needs require solutions to improve processes, architectures, technologies, and human factors. Without such effective and comprehensive solutions, the most eloquent proposal for government work could end in defeat and the most well-funded government programs could yield operational disruptions and performance failures. There are many books on how to write winning proposals to the government, but this book places winning in the context of deeply understanding government operations and innovatively solving government problems. There are also some books on convincing the government to adopt new transformational processes, but this book seeks to first try to fix current government processes before demanding risky transformation. Finally, there are massive tomes dedicated to the theories and mathematical models of operations research, but this book is devoted to making operations research simple enough for professionals to apply throughout the course of developing proposals and delivering products and services. Presenting the methods and techniques for quickly developing solutions is thus the central focus.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. What Is and Is Not an Operational Solution. Government Solution Needs. Funding and Procurement of Solutions. When and in What Format to Develop Solutions. Learning from Tragic Outcomes for the Government. Learning from Tragic Outcomes for the Contractor. Analyzing the Problem or Opportunity. Developing Solutions that Improve Processes. Developing Solutions that Improve Architectures and Designs. Developing Solutions that Improve Technologies. Developing Solutions that Improve Personnel Capabilities. The Art of Proposing Solutions. Winning Is Only the Beginning. Appendix A: A Brief History of the U.S. Department of Defense Acquisition Process. Appendix B: More Details on the U.S. Federal Source Selection Process. Appendix C: Government Oversight Processes for Solutions Implementation. Acronyms List.

About the Author :
Dr. Chiang H. Ren is an entrepreneur, C-Level executive, and operations research expert who is currently the Chief Solutions Architect for Planned Systems International Inc. Prior to this appointment, he has been the chief technology officer for two other companies. In these positions and as a senior analyst for multiple United States government agencies, he has further published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles in operations research, disaster preparedness, information technology management, systems engineering, theoretical biology, and particle physics. His book titles, How Systems Form and How Systems Break was published in 2016 by Springer. Dr. Ren holds a B.S.E. degree Magna Cum Laude in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania, an S.M. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD degree in Systems Analysis from the University of Bolton. He has received multiple presentation awards from the Military Operations Research Society, a letter of recognition from the U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, and additional recognitions from senior government leaders. Also, Dr. Ren is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.