Management of Major Programs

Assignment : Initial Capability Document

Background:

You are the Chief Executive Officer of Smallville Hospital. The hospital currently has a 250-bed capacity. Owing to the rapid growth of Smallville (a suburb of Bigville), you are anticipating a growing need for additional hospital bed capacity. Currently, occupancy of hospital beds stands at 85%.

You anticipate that next year, demand will be 100% of current capacity, that two years from now it will be 125% of current capacity, and three years from now it will be at 140% of current capacity. If growth of the community continues at its current pace, you anticipate that Smallville will commission the building of a county hospital, so that demand for beds at Smallville hospital will peak three years from now. After that, demand will be level.

You anticipate the need to add a new wing to the hospital. The new wing will accommodate 100 new beds. No new laboratory facilities will need to be built, so the new wing will basically be nothing more than a dormitory. (Note that over the past few years, Smallville hospital has been outsourcing its lab work to a laboratory located five miles away in Bigville.) Because of increased patient load, food preparation capacity will need to be expanded in the current facility.

You are very early in the acquisition stage. Aside from some brief discussions with architects and builders, you have not yet investigated carefully what it will take to build a new addition to the hospital. At this point, you need to gain support from the hospital's Board of Trustees to move forward with the acquisition process. If the Board supports your decision to build a new wing, then you will need to solicit bids from architects and builders.

Assignment:

Using the Initial Capability Document template below to create an ICD that you will present to the hospital's Board of Directors. Ultimately, if the Board finds your ICD to be compelling, they will authorize you to move forward with the acquisition.

Your ID should be no longer than three pages long, typed single spaced. If you want to add figures and tables, the document can be longer than three pages.

Note: The ICD template below has been tailored to illustrate the process of defining a mission, identifying current and future capabilities and address capability gaps. See the Unmanned Systems ICD document for an example of an actual ICD used by Department of Defense.

Initial Capability Document Template

The ICD should contain the following information:

Title Page. Title of the ICD; originator name, organization, phone and fax numbers; version number.

Mission Area. Describe briefly the mission area (e.g., advisory, flight assistance and monitoring, capacity and demand management) with the need or opportunity for technological improvement.

Needed Capability. Identify the operational or functional capability that is needed to resolve a capability shortfall or what can be achieved through a technological opportunity. Describe capability in terms of functions to be performed or services to be provided. Never describe capability in terms of a system or solution.

Cite any Congressional, Administrator, or other high-level direction, such as international agreements, to support the mission need. Cite any statutory or regulatory authority for the need.

Current Capability. Describe quantitatively the capability of current systems, facilities, equipment, or other assets now deployed to meet the mission need.

Capability Shortfall. Describe and quantify the capability shortfall, as derived from operational and performance analyses, or describe the technological opportunity in terms of improved productivity, operational effectiveness, or efficiency. Provide validated growth projections based on operational analysis, as appropriate. Summarize the limitations of current facilities, equipment, or services to meet projected service needs. Provide specific operational and performance analyses, quantitative projections, supporting data, or other analyses as attachments.

Impact. Describe the impact on the hospital's ability to perform mission responsibilities if the capability shortfall is not resolved. Or describe the impact of a lost technological opportunity in terms of costs to the hospital. Categories of impact include safety, capacity, operations, maintenance, cost, and other factors as appropriate.

Benefits. Quantify to the degree practical in then-year dollars the annual benefits to the hospital that will accrue if this mission need is satisfied. Benefits may accrue from more efficient operations, increased safety, lower operational costs, or other savings.

Timeframe. Identify when the capability shortfall will seriously affect the hospital ability to perform its mission if no action is taken. Establish when the agency must have completed action to avoid the adverse impact on services.

Criticality. Define the priority of this mission need relative to all other hospital needs.

Resource Planning Estimate. Estimate the resources the hospital will likely be able to commit to this mission need in competition with all others within the constraint of a realistic projection of future hospital budget.

The resource planning estimate is derived from the benefit to the hospital if the need is satisfied, the cost of not addressing it (e.g., travel delays, increased maintenance cost, lost productivity), and the scope of changes to the hospital asset base likely to be required.