Steve Grippando, Christie Best
The FCC and the NTIA mandated that following the AWS-3 spectrum auction, the new Wireless Carriers licensees and NOAA will “Spectrum Share” 1695-1710 MHz spectrum. The FCC/NTIA determined that sharing was feasible with “protection zones” and an interference monitoring system at each NOAA earth station.
NOAA performed market research which showed that no existing COTs system for this interference monitoring system function existed in the unclassified marketplace. Therefore, they developed an acquisition approach which included a Concept of Operations and Statement of Objectives in a Request for Proposal package which went out to industry. NOAA awarded contracts to two contractors with different technical solutions. The Project Management Office (PMO) overseeing these two contracts requires specific expertise and a unique strategic approach to management to determine the best solution for NOAA. This paper discusses various management challenges such as transition to operations (NOAA traditional) versus research and development (R&D) approaches as well as the PMO’s unique management tactics during proof of concept and prototype phases of the RFIMS system development lifecycle.
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