featured project ARCHIVE

TRANSFORMING NOAA’S LONG-TERM PLANNING PROCESSES

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operated on a budget cycle that did not align well with the demands of long-term planning, investment, and acquisition strategies, making it difficult to set project priorities and estimate costs. We are helping NOAA transition to a planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPBE) system that will enhance its multiyear planning and programming. We helped it identify critical projects and programs associated with our interactions with earth’s natural systems and better align resources and actions with long-term goals to comprehensively understand the implications of change.

In addition, we assisted NOAA with conceptualizing, planning, and coordinating a national stakeholder forum—bringing together academic, government, and industry organizations that use or influence NOAA products—to help identify requirements and other inputs to the long-term planning process. Now, it more clearly understands future priorities and appropriate investment strategies for attaining them, furnishes better information to management, is reducing program costs and timelines, and enjoys stronger stakeholder relationships.