AN EVALUATION OF THE MAJOR QUALIFI- CATIONS DESIRED OF AIR 1-ORCE SYSTEM PROGRAM MANAGERS

The Air Force places a great deal of emphasis on the proper selec- j tion of system program managers for its multi-million dollar pro-grams. There is an assumption that there is no difference in the desired qualifications of a system program manager over the program acquisition life cycle (conceptual, validation, full scale develop-gment, production, and deployment phases). This assumption is A largely unsubstantiated in the literature. This study conducted an exploratory evaluation on the education, experience, and mana-gerial trait qualifications desired of system program managers over the program life cycle. Interviews were conduqted with the present system program managers of major Air Force programs to obtain data bearing on the relationship of the desired qualifications between the individual stages. The authors concluded from an analysis of the data that there is a difference in education and experience, but not of managerial trait qualifications desired of system pro