Mission Diagnostic Protocol, Version 1.0: A Risk-Based Approach for Assessing the Potential for Success

Parent SEI Program

Dynamic Systems Program

Parent SEI Project

Mission Success in Complex Environments (MSCE)

Related Publications

Lessons Learned Applying the Mission Diagnostic

Executive Overview of SEI MOSAIC: Managing for Success Using a Risk-Based Approach

Christopher Alberts
Audrey Dorofee
Lisa Marino

Technical Report
CMU/SEI-2008-TR-005

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SEI Mission-Oriented Success Analysis and Improvement Criteria (MOSAIC) is a management approach for establishing and maintaining confidence that objectives will be achieved successfully. It comprises a suite of risk-based methods for assessing and managing complex projects and processes. The Mission Diagnostic Protocol (MDP) is one of the assessments included in MOSAIC. MDP provides a time-efficient means of analyzing the potential for success in complex and uncertain environments and can be applied across the life cycle and throughout the supply chain. It produces a broad overview of the current state of risk and opportunity for a project or process. With MDP, a set of key drivers is evaluated to establish current conditions and circumstances that can affect performance. Then, a simple algorithm is used to estimate the likelihood of achieving the objectives being pursued. An MDP assessment is straightforward to conduct, and it can be self-applied by people who are responsible for overseeing projects and processes. The purpose of this document is to describe the core set of activities and outputs that defines MDP.