Redux

Our Preliminary Design Review was going well today until we got to the Action Item review (the last thing before wrapping the meeting up). We'd taken actions, as happens at every meeting, and none of them seemed overly crazy to me (not that my opinion is worth anything). I'm going to have to establish a background here: we entered the review knowing that there were things that needed to be done. Moving at the speed of government, some things are always on-going and not complete when you enter a major review. We handle that problem with what's called a "pre-declared" action item. Everyone knows about it going in, and we all agree to the language, closure evidence, and estimated completion date. We had a few for our Requirements Review in January, and one was still open (mostly waiting on contract action, which takes freakin' forever). We opened another one leading up to this review. Then, we took about 15 - 20 actions during this two-day review. I can't go into details, but one of the actions we took during the review is very closely related to the predeclared action. And the government chair, 10 seconds before hanging up from the conference call, decides that the regular action is going to completely hold up our PDR. This comes on the heels of some other program decisions and opinions from the chair that made everyone think we were going have a pretty clean review.

After the chair hangs up, one of our guys insists on rehashing the issue 3 or 4 times. We all understood from the beginning, and we weren't the ones he needed to convince. The chair from the prime contractor was willing to proceed and sign off on the review (closure dependent on closing actions). He needed no further convincing. Arguing with people who agree with you and only want to leave is no way to win friends. Then, this guy insisted on going back in the presentation to prove his point. Again. The point everyone already agreed with. Except the guy who wasn't there anymore. Oy.

Lunch was the freakin' awesome pizza they order in about once a week. I'd had it several times on other visits, so I'd been hoping for it this trip. I'm not sure if I'll be back, for various reasons, and it was nice to go out on a good note with lunch.

The College World Series isn't bad. It suffers from a lack of attractive women in tight pants, but it's OK. More tomorrow.