1-2-3 Invest: A Frame of Reference for Public-Sector and Non-Profit Investment Selection Studies

Abstract

Investment selection studies are conducted to develop, analyze, recommend, and choose the investments an organization will make. This report offers a frame of reference for planning and organizing public-sector and non-profit investment studies. It is written in support of studies that The MITRE Corporation conducts for its sponsors (government agencies) and for itself (a non-profit organization operating in the public interest). The report addresses those investment decision-making situations, common in public and non-profit enterprises, where the important reasons for investing are substantially non-financial and the anticipated returns from investment are not easily measurable in monetary terms. For instance, the desired returns from such investments may be to improve national defense or public safety. The frame of reference includes ideas, conditions, and assumptions for planning how such investment selection studies should be carried out. Its scope encompasses major inter-organizational studies, such as the Department of Defense's C4ISR Mission Assessment that MITRE led in 1997. It includes those aspects of organizational budgeting and source selection processes that are conducted to develop investment recommendations, as MITRE has done with the DoD, Federal Aviation Administration, and Internal Revenue Service. It also includes smaller studies, such as a DoD Analysis of Alternatives. The frame of reference distinguishes two major types of investment selection study. First is simple selection, where one of several alternatives is selected. Second is complex selection, in which resources are allocated among many competing investment opportunities that are collectively unaffordable. The report sketches a picture of all the activities an investment selection study might require.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2001
Accession Number
AD1133177

Entities

People

  • Kenneth P. Kuskey

Organizations

  • MITRE Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Application Software
  • Basic Programming Language
  • Business Administration
  • Case Studies
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Databases
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Mathematical Models
  • Money
  • Operations Research
  • Probabilistic Models
  • Probability
  • Probability Distributions
  • Systems Engineering

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Systems Analysis and Design