Technomics employee-owners are devoted to technical and professional excellence and are actively involved in the International Cost Estimating & Analysis Association (ICEAA) at both the local and national levels. Our Technical Director, Rick Collins, served as the President at the national level and Project Manager Remmie Arnold served as the President of the ICEAA Washington Capital Area Chapter (WCAC). Currently Project Manager Bob Nehring serves as the WCAC Vice President.
ICEAA recently hosted its annual Professional Development & Training Workshop in Pittsburg, PA from May 17th-19th . This was the first international event to be held in-person in three years. The three-day conference consisted of general and informative breakout sessions and opportunities to network with members in the cost estimating community. A large portion of the event was comprised of attendees having access to varying general presentations and then additional concurrent breakout training and professional papers presentations.
Technomics had 28 employee-owners in attendance and presented on seven different papers throughout the the Workshop.
Day 1
On Day 1, Technomics presented on 3 of the 7 papers, all within different categories. The first category was Analytical Methods (Regression, Risk, Business Case, Economics, Parametrics, Bottoms-up, Should-cost, etc.). This presentation was given by Lead Analyst Abby Schendt, Project Manager Michael Metcalf, and Raymond Vera with the NNSA. They presented on their paper, “Using Technology Readiness Levels to Predict the Future of Nuclear Weapons”. The second paper that was presented, “Dynamic Software Effort Estimation How SWEET It Is!,” was in the category of Software (Estimating/Sizing) / Agile, and was written by Senior Analyst William Gellatly, Lead Analyst Lindsey Jones, Associate Project Manager Alex Wekluk, and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Dave Brown and Peter Braxton. The third presentation of the day, “Uncertainty of Expert Judgment in Agile Software Sizing,” was in the category of Management, EVM & Scheduling, Risk, Planning and was written by SME Peter Braxton, Dave Brown, Associate Director Kenneth Rhodes, and Alex Wekluk.
To wrap up a wonderful first day of the conference, Michael Metcalf, Abby Schendt, and Ray Vera were presented with the award for the 2022 Best Paper: Analytical Methods Track. This was one of only six best paper awards handed out at the conference. Michael, Abby, and Ray’s paper explored how Technology Readiness Level (TRL) data can be used to perform credible, data-driven schedule analysis for programs during early development. In their paper, they detail how the “resultant methodology combines historical milestone data and statistical methods to generate a Monte Carlo Simulation of a risk-adjusted schedule for complex programs.” Since 2010, Technomics has received 17 Best Paper Awards.
Day 2
On Day 2, Technomics presented the paper, “Minding Your P’s and Q’s as Prices Rise,” written by Lead Analyst Alan Karickhoff, Michael Metcalf, Associate Director Omar Akbik, and SME Brian Flynn in the Trending Topics (General, Policy, Economy, International Affairs, etc.) category. The second presentation of the day was written by Senior Associate Maura Lapoff titled “Advanced Natural Language Processing for Work Breakdown Structures,” which was in the category of Machine Learning / NLP.
Day 3
On the last day of the conference, Technomics gave another two presentations. The first was in the Processes and Best Practices Category, “Cracking Open the 'Black Box' of Product Technical Support Contracts,” written by Senior Associate Alex Bonich, Lead Analyst Rhys Bergeron, and Program Manager Patrick McCarthy. The final Technomics presentation was “What Does Agile Software Development Need? Predictable Cost or Predictable Outcomes?” written by Lead Analyst Christina Kosmakos and Dave Brown in the Software (Estimating/Sizing) / Agile category.
Lead Analyst Aaron Everly also provided support as the Data Visualization Lead for the Schedule Execution Metrics (SEM) presentation in the Processes & Best Practices category with NRO Sponsor Ivan Bembers and Study Lead Michelle Jones.
In the past, Technomics has had several winners of the following awards and accolades:
- 2007 SCEA Education Award Winner Peter J. Braxton
- 2010 SCEA Contributions in the Field of Management Winner Rick Collins
- 2013 Technical Achievement of the Year Winner Robert Nehring
- 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Brian Flynn
- 2014 Association Service Award Winner Perter J. Braxton
- 2016 Technical Achievement of the Year Winner Adam James
- 2018 Junior Analyst of the Year Winner Marc Stephenson
- 2019 Educator of the Year Winner Peter Braxton
- 2020 Technical Achievement of the Year Winner Orly Olbum
- 2020 Team Achievement of the Year Winner: Australian Defense Force Design Team
- Rock Collins, Paul Hardin, & Brian Flynn partnered with members of the Australian DoD and QinetiQ UK were recognized
- 2020 Educator of the Year Winner: Cost Assessment Data Enterprise (CADE) Training Team
- The award recognized OSD CAPE sponsor Tom Henry and Technomics contributors Torri Preston, Ryan Horn, Ben Berkman, and Jack Titus
- 2020 Junior Analyst of the Year Winner Justin Cooper
Technomics added another winner to this list with our very own Associate Project Manager Patrick Ahearn winning the 2022 Technical Achievement of the Year Award. This award is given to an individual who had made an outstanding technical contribution in the cost estimating and analysis field. This was achieved through significant achievement in both technical work and playing an instrumental part in the development of technical products.
Technomics congratulates Michael, Abby, and Patrick for their achievements! Technomics proudly looks forward to seeing this list grow with more Employee Owners making strides in the cost-estimating field and being recognized for their amazing contributions. Congratulations to all winners and presenters at the 2022 ICEAA Workshop and we are looking forward to the 2023 Workshop to be held in San Antonio, Texas.
References:
[https://www.iceaaonline.com/awards/]
