EVALUATION OF TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN RELIABILITY, PERFORMANCE, SCHEDULE, AND COST

The nature of internal and external trade-offs between reliability, performance, cost, and schedule is discussed in general terms, and some techniques are outlined for defining these trade-offs; consideration is given also to confidence as a supplementary program parameter, with trade-offs to the other parameters. The use of these trade-offs in three program-management areas is then described briefly, namely, (1) system and program definition, (2) program-progress monitoring, and (3) establishment of meaningful performance-incentive-fee schedules.