*What law identifies the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the senior ranking member of the
Armed Forces? - Answers The Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act of 1986
*The military operational chain of command runs from the President to whom? - Answers The Secretary
of Defense to the Combatant Commanders
*The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military advisor to which officials and/or
organizations? - Answers The President, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense
*Who serves as the Chairman of the National Security Council? - Answers The President
*Name the three major phases of the PPBE process that result in the DOD portion of the President's
Budget that is submitted to Congress? - Answers Planning, Programming, and Budgeting
*What is the title of the senior OSD official responsible for the planning phase of the PPBE process? -
Answers Undersecretary of Defense (Policy)
*What is the title of the senior OSD official responsible for issuing programming guidance? - Answers
Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (D,CAPE)
*What is the title of the senior OSD official who is the principal advisor and assistant to the SECDEF for
budget and fiscal matters? - Answers Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) / Chief Financial Officer
*The Undersecretary of Defense (Acquisition & Sustainment) serves as the Chairman of what Board? -
Answers Defense Acquisition Board (DAB)
*Assume today's date is 1 March 2020 and your organization knows about a new project or requirement
that will require its initial funding in FY 2027. What is the first PPBE-related document which you could
identify resources for that requirement? - Answers POM 2023 - 2027
*What is the title of the final document of the planning phase? - Answers Defense Planning Guidance
(DPG)
*What is the name of the automated database that summarizes all forces, resources, and equipment
associated with programs approved by the Secretary of Defense? - Answers Future Years Defense
Program (FYDP)
*What is the phase of the PPBE process in which programmatic decisions are translated into requested
resources in an appropriations format? - Answers Budgeting (Budget Development)
*What is the name of the document prepared by the Joint Staff after its review of POMs submitted by
the Military Departments that focuses on the balance and capabilities contained in those POMs? (This
,document provides the SECDEF with the JCS evaluation of the Military Departments' POM submissions) -
Answers Chairman's Program Assessment (CPA) [Chairman, JCS]
*Following a review of a Component's budget submission and a potential budget hearing in the fall
timeframe, the reviewing USD(C) budget analyst prepares a draft document that is submitted to
DEPSECDEF or SECDEF for a decision. Once signed by one of those senior officials, what is that document
called? - Answers Program Budget Decision
*Advance Procurement is an exception to what funding policy? - Answers Full Funding
Within what type document does Congress specify the number of fiscal years that an appropriation
account remains current and available for new obligations? - Answers An appropriation bill (becomes a
law when signed by the President)
*Assume an agency has issued an Economy Act order to another Federal agency for specific services, the
cited appropriation has gone into an expired status, and the servicing agency has neither provided the
ordered services nor has entered into an authorized contract with another entity to provide the ordered
services. What must now be done with those obligated funds? - Answers De-obligate
*What is the term used for shifting funds between appropriations? - Answers Transfer action
*What is the long-term financial goal of a working capital fund? - Answers To break even
*A working capital fund has an officer (O-4) properly assigned to the organization and that officer is
doing the work that would normally be performed by a GS-13. For managerial cost accounting purposes,
is the "cost" of that officer's pay and benefits "charged" at the military O-4 rate or the civilian GS-13
rate? - Answers Civilian GS-13 rate (and the proper MILPER account is reimbursed for that amount)
*Assume your organization overpaid a contractor on a contract awarded with an appropriation that is
now in the cancelled status, and the contractor has sent in a check for that overpayment. What can your
organization legally do with that refund from the contractor? - Answers Credit the refund to
miscellaneous receipts of the U.S. Treasury
*Monies not appropriated by Congress that are generated primarily from the sale of goods and services
are known as what? - Answers Non-appropriated Funds (NAF)
*The Defense Acquisition System is the management process that guides DoD acquisition programs and
is basically the process by which programmatic risk is managed. What are the three programmatic risks
that must be successfully managed? - Answers Cost, Schedule, and Performance Risks
*What are the appropriations that may be used to fund an acquisition program? - Answers RDT&E,
Procurement, O$M, MILCON, and MILPERS
*What is the term used to describe dollars shown in the life cycle cost estimate wherin the effects of
inflation are not considered? - Answers Base year dollars or Constant year dollars
, *What is the term used to describe dollars used for programming and budgeting purposes wherin the
effects of inflation are considered? - Answers Then-year dollars or Current year dollars
*What cost structure does MIL-STD-881C represent? - Answers Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
*Which cost estimating method is based on direct comparison with historical information of one similar
system? - Answers Analogy Method
*Which cost estimating method requires extensive knowledge of the product or process? - Answers
Engineering Approach
*What are the methods/steps in conducting the Delphi Technique? - Answers Query expert opinion;
seek supporting rationale or information from each expert; summarize results; gather second opinion;
continue iteration until consensus or near-consensus is reached
*What is the theory that as the quantity of output doubles, the man-hours required to produce the
quantity decreases at a fixed rate? - Answers Learning Curve Theory
*What is the name of the integrated management tool intended to relate contractor actual
performance on a contract to the contractor's planned cost and schedule that measures the work
progress in objective terms and that states the value of the work completed in dollars? - Answers Earned
Value Management System
*What is the EVM-related term when there is a difference between budgeted cost of work performed
(BCWP) and actual cost of work performed (ACWP) on a cost reimbursable contract? - Answers Cost
Variance
*What is a systematic approach to the problem of choosing the best method of allocating scarce
resources to achieve a given objective? - Answers Economic Analysis
*Cost Savings, Cost Avoidance, and Productivity Improvements are examples of what type of cost
benefits? - Answers Quantifiable Benefits
*In regards to measures of central tendency, what is a mean? A mode? A median? - Answers Mean is
the arithmetic average; mode is the most frequent score in a distribution of scores; median is the middle
of arrayed values
*What does correlation measure? - Answers Correlation measures the degree of relationship between
two or more variables
*For a perfect correlation to exist, what would be the coefficient? - Answers 1.0
*When evaluating a proposed investment or project with costs and benefits occurring not only in the
current year but also future years, it is necessary to "bring back to today's dollars" all those costs and
benefits. What is this process determining? - Answers Net Present Value of the proposed investment or
project