Exploring the Connections between Budget Credibility and SDG Implementation

  • Sep 11, 2023

As we reach the half-way mark to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and prepare for the Global SDG Summit, the world is not where it needs to be to achieve the agreed-upon targets. Government budgets serve as a roadmap, guiding spending toward effective delivery of public services and progress on sustainable development. While trillions of dollars are mobilized to reach development goals, national budgets are not being effectively and efficiently spent. Budget credibility is defined as the ability of governments to meet the fiscal targets set out in their annual budgets. Research conducted by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) and civil society partners in 13 countries finds that chronic budget credibility challenges disproportionately impact social sectors and undermine efforts to prioritize spending toward development goals. The following synthesis, case studies and how-to guide outline the findings of research conducted in 13 countries by IBP and civil society partners.

READ: Exploring the Connections between Budget Credibility and SDG Implementation: A Synthesis of Findings from 13 Country Case Studies

Results from country investigations:

  • Examining Budget Credibility in Argentina’s Education Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Côte d’Ivoire’s Education Sector (forthcoming)
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Ghana’s Agriculture Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Indonesia’s Water and Sanitation Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Mexico’s Environmental Protection Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Mongolia’s Health Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Nepal’s Health Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Nigeria’s Health Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Romania’s Education Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Senegal’s Water and Sanitation Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in South Africa’s Water and Sanitation Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in The Gambia’s Agriculture Sector
  • Examining Budget Credibility in Zambia’s Agriculture Sector

Other resources:

  • HOW TO GUIDE: Monitoring Budget Credibility of SDG Spending – A powerful tool for budget advocates
  • Event: Keeping Budget Promises
  • Research Framework: SDG 16.6.1 Brief Framework
  • Research Framework: SDG 16.6.1 Sector Brief Framework
  • Connecting Budget Credibility to the Sustainable Development Goals

Exploring the Connections between Budget Credibility and SDG Implementation: A Synthesis of Findings from 13 Country Case Studies

Improving budget credibility in primary health services in nigeria, the performance of the immunization sector in senegal: budget credibility issues and demand generation, investigating budget credibility: a toolkit for civil society organizations, examining budget credibility in côte d’ivoire’s education sector, claire o'donnell.

budget development case study

Claire O’Donnell works at the International Budget Partnership (IBP) as a Research Associate for the budget credibility initiative, coordinating global research products and learning events. O’Donnell is passionate about using budget advocacy as a tool to address inequity, with a particular interest in the intersection of budgets and gender.

Prior to joining IBP in 2021, O’Donnell worked with Women for Women International, the Kibale Forest Schools Project, Alianza por la Solidaridad and Aid to Artisans. O’Donnell holds a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.

Godson Korbla Aloryito

budget development case study

Godson Aloryito joined IBP in 2021 as the Budget Credibility Program Officer for Ghana. He has rich experience in Public Finance Analysis and Advocacy in Fiscal Transparency and Accountability. Prior to joining IBP, he worked as Resident Economist and Coordinator of the Economic Governance Platform, a CSOs’ coalition which influenced the design of Ghana’s recent stabilization program with the IMF by securing social protection programs and mainstreamed CSOs’ monitoring of their implementation as well as key structural fiscal reforms.

Godson recently, initiated and facilitated structured grassroot CSOs dialogue and advocacy with donor agencies such as the World Bank to promote social inclusion and citizens’ feedback on donor-funded projects in Ghana. He has consulted for the Institute of Development Studies, the World Bank and supported the commencement of SPARK in Ghana as a consultant.

Godson holds a B.A. and MPhil degrees in Economics from the University of Ghana and is currently a PhD candidate in Finance at the University of Ghana.

Sokhna Assiatou Diop

budget development case study

Assiatou Diop works at International Budget Partnership (IBP) as the Program officer for the budget credibility initiative in Senegal. Focusing on social sectors with high impact on vulnerable groups, Assiatou is dedicated to analyzing budget constraints and financing issues in the health and sanitation sectors. Leading on IBP’s efforts to unpack budget implementation challenges in Senegal’s Sanitation sector, Assiatou advocates for more efficient and inclusive public policies in human capital related sectors.

Prior to joining IBP in 2021, Assiatou worked at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), supporting the funding process of university-based research from the Federal Government.

Assiatou holds a Masters in Public and International Affairs from Ottawa University, and a Bachelors in Economics and Political Sc. from Montreal University.

Julieta Izcurdia

Natán spollansky.

budget development case study

Natán Spollansky is a member of ACIJ’s Tax Justice program and an economic advisor within the Budget and Finance Commission of the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.

He has a degree in Economics and is a candidate for a Master’s in Public Administration from the National University of Córdoba (UNC).

Lisa Higginson

budget development case study

Lisa is the Budget Advocacy Coordinator at the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) at Rhodes University, where she is currently engaged in research and advocacy for budget transparency, open government and social accountability monitoring.

She is also Deputy Coordinator of Imali Yethu civil society coalition for open budgets, and a member of the Steering Committee for the Budget Justice Coalition.

Dede Krishnadianty

budget development case study

Holding a Bachelor degree in Architecture and planning, Dede continued her study in trans-disciplinary Environment management master course at University of Melbourne.

She has proven record on working in Sustainable Development areas for 10 years, in a wide range of programmatic themes of Urban design, SDGs, Climate change, renewable energy, Sustainable Tourism, waste management, and public finance. In the last three years with WWF Indonesia She had been working to develop Green Budget Tagging, a specific tool to measure green economy budgeting in Indonesia.

Andrea Larios Campos

Oyunbadam davaakhuu, subash dahal, taranath dahal, olaniyi olaleye.

budget development case study

Olaniyi Olaleye joined the International Budget Partnership in 2021 as a Program Officer, Budget Credibility in Nigeria.  Previously, he was a Senior Research Analyst at  BudgIT Foundation. Olaniyi earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and International Relations from the Obafemi Awolowo University. Ile-Ife and holds a master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Olaniyi has written and co-published technical papers on budgeting, fiscal realism, sub-national transparency and inequality. His interest includes unearthing underlying public finance management issues in the social sectors. Olaniyi has managed core governance programs supporting National and International Development Partners and has led a series of campaigns to improve fiscal transparency and accountability at the National and Sub-national levels in Nigeria.

Elena Calistru

Diana tăbleț, lamin dibba, muchimba siamachoka.

budget development case study

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American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region

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HKS Case Program

Budgeting and Finance

The cases in this section provide a student-centered approach to teaching the tools and processes of financial management. The case method allows students to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges, like closing a public utility’s budget shortfall or developing innovative models to fund social programs, from the inside out.

Teaching Case with Video Supplement - Cracking Oyster: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Confront a Tough Contract (B) (Sequel)

Confronting Constraints: Shashi Verma & Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract Sequel

Publication Date: December 19. 2023

This sequel accompanies HKS Case 2275.0, "Conflicting Constraints: Shashi Verma &Transport for London Tackle a Tough Contract."  The case introduces Shashi Verma (MPP 97) in 2006, soon after he has received a plum appointment: Director...

Teaching Case - Untapped Potential: Renewable Energy in Argentina

Untapped Potential: Renewable Energy in Argentina (Sequel)

Publication Date: October 6, 2020

In 2015, Mauricio Macri became President of Argentina and declared solving the energy crisis one of his top priorities. When Macri attempted to raise utility tariffs, however, he faced loud protests from citizens. In search of solutions to...

Teaching Case - Untapped Potential: Renewable Energy in Argentina

Untapped Potential: Renewable Energy in Argentina

Publication Date: August 23, 2019

Teaching Case with Video Supplement - Paying to Improve Girls’ Education: India’s First Development Impact Bond

Paying to Improve Girls’ Education: India’s First Development Impact Bond

Publication Date: April 8, 2019

In 2013, Educate Girls (an Indian nonprofit working to increase the number of girls enrolled and learning in school), partnered with Instiglio, a startup specializing in financial instruments for social programs in developing countries to create...

Teaching Case - Cashing Out: The Future of Cash in Israel

Cashing Out: The Future of Cash in Israel

Publication Date: January 29, 2018

It is impossible to predict the future, but this is a task policymakers are effectively expected to do when deciding how to deploy scarce resources to the benefit of future constituents. This case therefore looks at one tool in...

Multimedia Case - The Rise and Fall of an American City: Race and Politics in Detroit, 1910-2013 (Multimedia)

The Rise and Fall of an American City: Race and Politics in Detroit, 1910-2013 (Multimedia)

Publication Date: April 26, 2017

In 1950, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the U.S., and one of its most successful. By the time the city filed for bankruptcy six decades later, it had become a symbol of racial segregation and industrial decline. This 30-min. documentary,...

Video-Based Case - The Rise and Fall of an American City: Race and Politics in Detroit, 1910-2013 (Documentary)

The Rise and Fall of an American City: Race and Politics in Detroit, 1910-2013 (Documentary)

Teaching Case - Vox Capital: Pioneering Impact Investing in Brazil

Vox Capital: Pioneering Impact Investing in Brazil

Publication Date: January 25, 2017

Vox Capital was the first certified impact investing fund in Brazil. Founded in 2009, it provides early-stage capital for companies offering innovative and scalable solutions to enhance the lives of low-income Brazilians, while aiming to...

Teaching Case - Akhuwat: Fighting Poverty with Interest-Free Microfinance

Akhuwat: Fighting Poverty with Interest-Free Microfinance

Publication Date: September 30, 2016

This case is about Akhuwat – one of the largest micro-finance organizations in Pakistan. The case presents Akhuwat's phenomenal growth from a small philanthropic experiment into one of the most prominent micro-finance organizations...

Teaching Case - Betty Lou’s Budget: Introductory Spreadsheet Training for Budgeting and Financial Management (B)

Betty Lou’s Budget: Introductory Spreadsheet Training for Budgeting and Financial Management (B)

Publication Date: September 22, 2016

This is an introductory case with a simple narrative designed to teach students the basics of designing a simple financial spreadsheet. The follow-up B case may be used to teach the basic steps for creating pivot tables. The topic is based on a...

Teaching Case - Betty Lou’s Budget: Introductory Spreadsheet Training for Budgeting and Financial Management (A)

Betty Lou’s Budget: Introductory Spreadsheet Training for Budgeting and Financial Management (A)

Teaching Case - Hubway (B): Note on the Critical Fractile

Hubway (B): Note on the Critical Fractile

Publication Date: May 23, 2016

In the summer of 2014, Alta Bicycle Share, Inc had just won its second contract to operate the Hubway bike sharing system in the cities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville in Eastern Massachusetts. Emily Stapleton, Hubway’s...

Participatory budgeting in 3 case studies

budget development case study

Participatory budgeting is one of the most popular forms of citizen consultation. More than just a buzzword, the tool is used by elected officials who want to make public governance more accessible and transparent. Far from applying a generic formula, each community creates its own process based on its own reality.

CitizenLab assists elected officials and their administration in the stimulating process of creating and implementing their customized participatory budget. This article aims to present three different recipes to inspire future projects.

Peñalolen launches a participatory budget to improve citizens’ quality of life

Project | Peñalolén (241,599 inhabitants), a Chilean commune in the Santiago Province, launched its participatory budget in 2019 . This project’s main focus was to involve the community on ideas to improve infrastructure and public spaces, with a particular emphasis on safety, accessibility, and intergenerational integration. Residents were invited to suggest ideas and vote for the projects they wanted to implement. Peñalolén freed a total budget of 500,000,000 Chilean pesos (equal to approximately $662,515) to be distributed by the community. The municipality did lay down some ground rules. The total sum has to fund at least ten initiatives, giving each proposal a maximum available budget of $50,000,000 (equal to approximately $66,251). The budget also has to be distributed equally, with the two most popular ideas in each macro-sector (neighborhood) receiving the funds. The city council will then approve the total sum and ratify the winning proposals.

budget development case study

Outcome | The participatory budgeting project lasted from August 2019 to April 2020. During this time, 24,450 citizens registered on the online platform. The project reached an engagement rate of 10,10%. The votes were spread relatively evenly, as initiatives focused on solutions in different areas. Based on this vote’s results, Peñalolén selected ten community projects spread out over the neighborhoods to receive municipal funding.

budget development case study

Arlon, a participatory budget for Sustainable Development

Project | The elected officials of the city of Arlon (30 000 inhabitants) allocated €25 000 from the municipal budget to invest in sustainable development. Citizens and local organizations had the opportunity to submit project proposals and express their opinions on the ideas shared on the city’s platform.

After an initial phase during which citizens shared their ideas on the platform as well as in physical mailboxes, the city brought together a committee of elected officials and citizens drawn at random to assess the feasibility of the proposed ideas. Following this initial pre-selection, 14 ideas were submitted to a public vote.

Outcome| At the end of the voting phase, 3 winning projects emerged. The city was responsible for implementing some projects (such as the creation of a biodiversity trail), and also partnered with citizens and community organizations to carry out others (the greening of certain municipal spaces). Following the success of this first initiative, Arlon launched a second participatory budget in 2020, this time dedicated to projects that promote social interaction.

Participatory budgeting as a lever for innovation in Rueil-Malmaison

Project | The French commune of Rueil-Malmaison (78,152 inhabitants), in the west suburbs of Paris, launched its participation platform in 2018 to give citizens a voice in the decision-making process. Rueil kicked off its digital engagement platform with a wide-scale participatory budget. In 2019, citizens had one and a half months to submit innovative projects for the city. In addition to collecting ideas through the platform, the municipality also installed physical ballot boxes at the town Hall, ensuring true inclusivity for participants with limited access to digital tools. All citizens older than 16 could participate, as long as they could prove their residence in Rueil-Malmaison. After this initial selection round by Rueil-Malmaison, the community had two weeks to vote for their favorite ideas: after each citizen had fulfilled the e-identification, they could vote for three projects, according to a preferential system (the first choice gets three points, the second choice two points, and the third choice one point). The projects with the most points would get implemented, potentially in cooperation with the idea’s initiator.

budget development case study

Outcome | The participatory budget was a great success – over 30,000 participants visited the platform, and 156 ideas made it past the initial check by the city. In the end, 8 projects were implemented by the city on topics ranging from new eco-friendly lighting systems to increasing green spaces in the city center.

Participatory budgeting is a flexible tool that can be included in many different scenarios. Investment proposals can come from citizens, but also from associations, private actors or the public sector. Participatory budgeting thus shouldn’t be perceived as a means to allocate “superfluous” or “surplus” budgets. Above all, it is a tool for making decisions within the framework of an enlightened and transparent budgetary exercise!

For more information on this topic, check out our practical guide to participatory budgeting, available for free here.

budget development case study

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Budget Development and Negotiation for Investigative Sites

Budget Development and Negotiation for Investigative Sites

Author : Anna K. Rockich, MS, Pharm D, Director, General Surgery Research Program, University of Kentucky Medical Center

Abstract : Effective budget development and negotiation is critical for investigative sites. This article provides an overview of budget requirements for the conduct of a study, identifies common mistakes in developing budgets, and highlights how to effectively develop the budget and negotiate with the sponsor. Tools to assist in managing the budget on a daily basis are provided.

Introduction

Study coordinators wear many hats, including organizing study operations, writing the institutional review board (IRB) submission, maintaining ongoing IRB communications, obtaining informed consent, administering investigational drugs and devices, monitoring study subjects, collecting data, and working with sponsors. Budget and billing are two of many responsibilities.

Protocols have become increasingly complex, and sponsors are demanding more work by investigative sites. According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development 1 , in 2000, the median number of unique procedures per protocol was 20.5; by 2011, this had increased to 30.4 unique procedures per protocol. The number of unique procedures per protocol in 2016, although not yet quantified, will be exponentially higher. The total number of eligibility criteria has also increased, from 31 in 2000 to 49 in 2007, the last date for which data are available. Scrutiny on inclusion and exclusion criteria has also increased. The median number of case report form pages per-protocol has increased from 55 in 2000 to 180 in 2007.

It takes about five years for a study coordinator with minimal experience to become relatively autonomous, in the author’s opinion. Budgeting and contracting are generally the last skills that study coordinators are taught. The author recently met a very experienced study coordinator who has worked as a study coordinator for 15 years. She had never, however, developed a budget. Locally, at least at the University of Kentucky, available curriculums for training on budgets and contracts are limited. On-the-job training requires time and good mentors. Study coordinator turnover is another issue. Study coordinating is a vocation not suited for all. Some people enjoy research while others do not, and they move on to other positions or disciplines. The author must continually train new study coordinators.

Selecting the Right Studies

The General Surgery Research Program (GSRP) at the University of Kentucky has developed a standardized method for budget development and management as well as a strong mentoring program for study coordinators. The GSRP also developed a system of checks and balances with budget management to ensure that the front-end work complements the back-end work.

Selecting the right studies is crucial (Table 1). It is a bad decision for both the investigative site and the sponsor when a site accepts a study and then cannot enroll enough subjects. Conducting a feasibility analysis enables the study coordinator to identify studies that are truly good matches for the institution. It is important to critically review the inclusion and exclusion criteria and not to simply ask the clinical investigator whether there are enough patients to meet the enrollment goal. A multi-disciplinary team of clinicians who will be involved with the study, such as specialty physicians, pharmacists, nurses, respiratory therapists, and nutritionists, should participate in reviewing the study and help identify possible stumbling blocks.

The study coordinator must also determine whether the budget is reasonable. The investigative site should not assume a deficit balance on a clinical trial for the sponsor. It is perfectly acceptable to tell the sponsor that the study will not work for the site.

Developing a Study Budget

The basics of budget development for a clinical trial include reviewing the protocol, the internal budget versus the external budget, cost versus charge, and the above standard of care versus standard of care analysis (Table 2). It is important to review each section of the protocol carefully. The author compares the study assessment table (a table summarizing study required procedures typically available in the protocol) to that of the actual text of the protocol. Ninety percent of the time, the assessment schedule is either inaccurate or incomplete. The author revises the assessment schedule for accuracy and uses it in preparing the budget. It is very important to carefully review the footnotes in the assessment table that further describe study assessments.

Whether the study is for a device, a drug, or both must be considered. The University of Kentucky General Surgery Research Program conducts both drug and device studies. Sometimes, however, investigative site staff may not have the necessary expertise. For example, the site is conducting a study of an investigational drug given by a syringe pump, and the nurses are not trained in the use of syringe pumps. Thus, this study involves both a drug and a device, and nurses need to be trained in using the syringe pumps. The study coordinator or the investigator must understand the investigator’s brochure, including the adverse event profile, which provides insights on adverse event monitoring that will be necessary during the study.

The author prepares two types of budgets for every protocol. These budgets include the internal and external ( or sponsor) budgets. The internal budget is a standardized worksheet for use in determining local costs. The budget that the sponsor sends the investigative site is the external budget. The study coordinator must convert the internal budget onto the external budget for the sponsor. Receiving the same sponsor budget format from all investigative sites enables the sponsor to compare budgets across sites. Every institution is different. The study coordinator must be able to effectively communicate with the sponsor to make the case for the site’s budget.

Another budget development basic is cost versus charge. The cost, which is fixed, is the total dollars needed to produce a service at the institution. A charge is the price of the service to the sponsor, which may be different. Investigative sites are in control of their charges and may be able to negotiate research discounts with different departments within the institution.

The “above standard of care” versus “standard of care” analysis is critical. The study coordinator and the investigator must have a good understanding of the standard of care for the patient population in order to understand and be able to identify issues related to items in the protocol that are above standard of care. It may be helpful to work with the investigator to identify literature that describes the standard of care nationally. The “above standard of care” items are the building block of the budget.

The General Surgery Research Program uses a worksheet that allows the investigator to identify the “above standard of care” procedures versus standard of care procedures. The investigator signs and dates the worksheet. It is necessary to have this documentation of above standard of care versus standard of care for budget negotiation. The General Surgery Research Program also gives the worksheet to the corporate compliance group for use in Medicare analysis and approval process.

Building the Budget

Key considerations in building the budget include study demographics, salaries, direct hospital costs, other direct costs, and pass-through costs. Study demographics frame the budget (Table 3). They include the phase of the study (Phase 1 to Phase 4), the number of subjects to be enrolled, the duration of enrollment, and the duration of the study to completed patients. If enrollment is anticipated to last two years and follow-up is five years, then the duration of the study to completed subjects is seven years. Over those seven years, costs will increase. Staff will receive cost of living adjustments in their raises and hospital costs will increase every year. The budget must include projected cost increases.

After subjects have completed the study, administrative work is required to close out the study. Thus, it is also important to understand the duration of study close-out. Study close-out includes reporting to the IRB, the final monitoring visits, and closing out the accounts.

Salaries are a major component of the study budget. Workload analysis is necessary to determine the salaries of the staff members who will be working on the protocol, including the investigator, the study coordinator, and perhaps a study administrator or on-call staff (Table 4).

Workload analysis includes the administrative time for each of the staff members for the entire study period, from the start of discussions with the sponsor to closing down the IRB and the last monitoring visit. Clinical time is estimated on a per-subject basis. In order to estimate the amount of time and money per key staff member, all of this information is distilled down to a percentage of the full-time equivalent.

The worksheet for administrative time includes estimated enrollment, the expected follow-up period, and the total expected study period. The General Surgery Research Program estimates the amount of time needed to complete specific administrative tasks such as budget management in half-hour increments. The estimate is done in hours per week multiplied by the number of weeks in the total expected study period.

Clinical time generally covers the investigator and the study coordinator, and for studies in the General Surgery Research Program, the on-call staff. The worksheet is used to estimate the amount of time needed, in half-hour increments, per subject, for each visit, and for each test/procedure. The totals are calculated for the total expected study period. The author works primarily on studies in General Surgery. Thus, subjects are enrolled 24/7, usually on weekends and evenings. These studies require an infrastructure where nurses are available 24/7, so on-call staff must be included in the budget.

Estimating labor time further requires understanding the true costs, which include salaries, benefits, total workplace days (total days minus vacation, sick, holiday, etc.), and non-study specific time. For example, if a staff member makes $50,000 plus benefits, totaling $16,500, the total salary is $66,500. The estimated time for administrative and clinical time is 832 project hours. If there are 1,760 work hours (estimate work hours to account for sick time, vacation, administrative non-study-related time) per year, then 40% of work effort, at $31,255, will be directed toward this particular study.

Table 5 outlines direct hospital costs, other direct costs, and pass-through costs. Direct hospital costs include laboratory charges and procedure costs. Carefully review laboratory groupings in the protocol. Every hospital has a standard battery of tests for every panel. Determine what the protocol requires in addition to those standard tests.

Procedure costs include technical and medical costs. For a CT scan, for example, there is a technical cost for performing the CT scan and the supplies used as well as a fee for the radiologist to read the scan. It is very important to sit down with representatives of other departments to discuss procedure costs and ask them to identify the exact CPT code or CDM code that is necessary. Other direct costs include subject stipends for travel, supplies, equipment, employee travel, ancillary units, clinical units, clinical space, and other departmental services such as the pharmacy, nursing, and respiratory therapy.

Protocols also have hidden costs. For example, the protocol may require the radiology technician to take more views than what is considered for a standard CT scan of the abdomen. It is very important to read the superscript descriptions of assessments and to look for bundled costs. The General Surgery Research Program is conducting a study in the ICU population that requires a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA). This is listed on the screening baseline visit all the way up to day 30. Performing a SOFA assessment requires evaluating renal, cardiovascular, coagulation, hepatic, neurological, and respiratory function. In order to budget costs accurately, investigative site staff needs to know that doing this also requires tests such as creatinine, bilirubin, platelet count, and blood gas analysis.

The duration of the protocol, use of a drug or device in other ongoing studies, and case report forms are factors that can add other hidden costs. Estimated annual cost increases based on the duration of the protocol must be incorporated into the budget. If the drug or device is being used in other ongoing studies, the investigative site could be inundated with investigational new drug application safety reports from those studies. The time required to complete case report forms must also be considered.

Pass-through costs represent costs that are not directly related to the per-subject costs. They are listed in a different section of the budget and passed directly to the sponsor. Pass-through costs include administrative start-up costs, the IRB start-up work, and contract and budget development. The University of Kentucky has a group that manages study budgets from a billing perspective, for a fee. The General Surgery Research Program passes this fee on to the sponsor. Other pass-through costs include pharmacy start-up fees, IRB review and close-out fees, and long-term storage and archiving.

Complicated laboratory tests and unanticipated laboratory tests are pass-through costs. The General Surgery Research Program conducts many studies requiring microbiology testing, which can be complicated. If the subject has a positive blood culture result in the beginning of the study, this test may need to be repeated. The blood culture test itself is complicated, as well as expensive. The General Surgery Research Program lists microbiology tests in the budget and passes through the costs. Depending on the drug or device being studied, unanticipated laboratory tests may be necessary due to a particular unanticipated side effect. Sometimes the sponsor will list a battery of required tests in the protocol if the side effect occurs. This should be part of the unanticipated laboratory tests section of the budget.

Contract and protocol amendments are another pass-through cost. Investigative site staff must spend time on contract and protocol amendments. The General Surgery Research Program bills the sponsor for each amendment.

Screen failures, serious adverse event (SAE) reports, investigational new drug application safety reports, and advertising are all pass-through costs. In order to have staff available 24/7, the General Surgery Research Program has quarterly on-call fees for pagers that are passed on to the sponsor. Outside services such as home healthcare are also pass-through costs.

Learning from Past Mistakes

Mistakes made by the author provide learning experiences for others. Allowing a non-enrolling study to continue was one mistake. Build a mechanism to evaluate enrollment on a quarterly basis. Sometimes, the investigative site can negotiate with the sponsor to identify and fix an enrollment problem. For example, the General Surgery Research Program negotiated with a sponsor to modify the inclusion/exclusion criteria for a study. In other cases, however, the site does not have the appropriate patient population, and enrollment cannot be increased to the necessary level.

Not addressing poor cash flow from a sponsor was another mistake by the author. The General Surgery Research Program was accumulating accounts receivable in a particular account with a very small device company. The device company went out of business and left the investigative site with a deficit. Other mistakes were underestimating screening time and training time as well as failure to address changes in the cost due to protocol amendments. Investigative site staff must consider whether a protocol amendment affects the budget and if it does, to address the budget change.

Investigative site staff members should not fear re-addressing costs with sponsors. The author’s experience in doing this has been very positive. If the site has a justifiable cost, sponsors are generally willing to work with the site. Sponsors want their sites to be successful and happy. If a site is partway through the study and staff members realize that they have underestimated the costs, they should discuss this with the sponsor.

Negotiating Budgets and Payments Terms 

Investigative sites give the sponsor a sponsor budget containing the site’s costs. Budgets of the General Surgery Research Program (GSRP) are generally higher than other sites because the General Surgery Research Program (GSRP) has a strong understanding of its costs, especially personnel costs. Site staff members should send a cost justification letter with the budget to explain the costs and to facilitate communication with the sponsor. The site should negotiate research discounts with various departments within the institution as a way to reduce costs for the sponsor if possible.

There are some basic rules to keep in mind about the budget in general. Timely payment is important. The General Surgery Research Program reviews budgets and bills quarterly. It is important to ensure that the investigative site receives regular payments from the sponsor. If it does not, this must be addressed. The site should charge the sponsor non-refundable start-up fees. Having a residual balance at the end of the study is the goal; however, there may be times when the study is very important to the investigator and there is no residual balance other than the needs to cover some study costs.

Once the budget and contract have been negotiated and the study is initiated, budget management is necessary. Budget management allows efficient management of study subject billing, and it provides protection against erroneous billing to third-party insurers and subjects, which could result in legal action. The Office of the Inspector General considers clinical research a top compliance initiative and is spending a great deal of money on fraud and abuse audits. Medicare “double-billing” has been the subject of many investigations and settlements by the Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Justice. Budget management creates a mechanism for communication between the study coordinator and the billing staff members, and it provides a process for critical analysis of the research program for financial progress.

Budget Management Tools

Budget management tools include:.

  • Budget management sheet
  • Study status log
  • Salary distribution log

The budget management sheet, placed in each subject’s record, is the most important budget management tool. The study coordinator uses the budget management sheet when ordering laboratory tests for a particular subject. The budget management sheet is used to document any procedures that are above the standard of care and to review bills for accuracy. Even more importantly, the budget management sheet enables the study coordinator to track down bills that were not received for study procedures and take the appropriate actions.

At the University of Kentucky, study coordinators and the billing group use the study status log to communicate. Everyone knows the number of subjects who have been enrolled in the study and exactly where they are in the study. This information is used in preparing accurate bills. Study coordinators use IRB and SAE logs to provide information to the billing group for use in accurate billing to the sponsor. The salary distribution log, updated monthly, assigns a percentage of staff time to each study. This is helpful in managing the budget for the current study as well as in developing budgets for similar studies in the future.

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance for the General Surgery Research Program consists of quarterly meetings with the administration, the department chairman, department administrators, and the author to critically evaluate studies. They review study progress, enrollment, salary distribution, and workload analysis. Using financial data, they justify future needs and do strategic planning.

  • Conduct a feasibility analysis
  • Critically review inclusion/exclusion criteria
  • Involve appropriate clinicians in reviewing the study (e.g., pharmacy, nurses, and dietary) for patient enrollment estimates and possible stumbling blocks
  • Determine whether the budget is reasonable

Budget Development Basics

  • Each section
  • Protocol text versus study assessment outline
  • Footnotes for expanded description
  • Device versus drug or both
  • Adverse event profile
  • Standardized worksheet for preparing the budget (not shared with the sponsor)
  • The sponsor’s budget
  • Investigative sites convert the internal budget to the sponsor budget
  • Costs are fixed
  • Charges might vary
  • Investigative sites control charges
  • Determine which procedures are above standard of care versus standard of care
  • Investigator signs and dates the analysis
  • Provides a footprint for the budget
  • Reflect above standard of care in the budget

Study Demographics

  • Phase of study
  • Number of subjects
  • Duration of enrollment
  • Duration of study to completed patient
  • Duration of study close-out

Workload Analysis to Determine Salaries

  • Investigator, study coordinator, study administrator, and on-call staff
  • Administrative time (representing the entire study period)
  • Clinical time (estimate on a per-subject basis)
  • Estimates are done in full-time equivalent percentages

Direct Costs and Pass-Through Costs

  • Carefully review laboratory groupings in the protocol
  • Technical cost
  • Medical cost
  • Department representatives must ensure that the necessary data points are collected under a specified CPT or CDM code
  • Subject stipends for travel
  • Employee travel
  • Ancillary units
  • Clinical units
  • Clinic space
  • Other departmental services (e.g., nursing, respiratory therapy, and pharmacy)
  • Administrative start up
  • Pharmacy start-up
  • IRB review fee
  • Long-term storage/archiving
  • Annual IRB renewal fee
  • IRB closeout fee
  • Complicated laboratory tests (microbiology)
  • Unanticipated laboratory tests
  • Contract/protocol amendment fee
  • Screen failures
  • SAE reports
  • Investigational new drug application safety reports
  • Advertising
  • Quarterly on-call fee
  • Outside services (home health care)
  • http://www.clinicalleader.com/doc/the-use-of-mobile-technology-to-support-patients-and-complex-protocols-in-clinical-studies-0001

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2 thoughts on “Budget Development and Negotiation for Investigative Sites”

Thank you for sharing such useful information.

Do all contracts/budgets for a sponsored clinical research study need to go through the institution or can the investigator sign/execute this on his/her own?

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Budgeting as practice and knowing in action: experimenting with Bourdieu's theory of practice: an empirical evidence from a public university

Asian Journal of Accounting Research

ISSN : 2459-9700

Article publication date: 11 February 2021

Issue publication date: 7 September 2021

The present study aims to explore how various doings, strategic actions and power relations stemming from internal agents are instrumental in (re)constituting the different forms and meanings of budgeting in a specific field.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a single-case study method based on a Sri Lankan public university. Data are collected using interviews, documentary evidence and observations.

The empirical evidence suggested that internal agents are crucial, and they are the producers of budgetary practice as they possess practical knowledge and power relations in the field where they operate. The case data demonstrate that organisational agents do have real essence as active and acting to produce effects in budgeting practices, and the significance of exploring the singularity of multiple agents in terms of their viewpoints, trajectories, dispositions and power relations, who may form, sustain or interrupt budgetary practices in a given setting.

Research limitations/implications

As the research is directed towards the selection of in-depth enquiry of specific setting infused with culture, values, perception and ideology, it might cause to diminish the researcher's analytical objectivity and independence of the research.

Practical implications

As budgetary practices are product of human interaction, it is important to note that practitioners should be concerned with what agents do in actual practice and their inactions, influences and power relations in budgeting practices, which might not align with the structural forces enlisted in the budgeting. It would be of interest for future empirical research to explore the interplay between the diverse interests of organisational agents and agents beyond the individual organisations.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on management control practices by documenting the importance of understanding the “practice” through relational thinking of all three concepts is emphasised, such interrelated theoretical insights are seldom used to understand accounting practices. This research emphasises the importance of bringing out the microprocessual facets of management control to open up its non-conscious, non-strategic and non-rationalist forms.

  • Budgeting practice
  • Practical knowledge
  • Power relations

Seneviratne, C.P. and Martino, A.L. (2021), "Budgeting as practice and knowing in action: experimenting with Bourdieu's theory of practice: an empirical evidence from a public university", Asian Journal of Accounting Research , Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 309-323. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJAR-08-2020-0075

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Chaturika Priyadarshani Seneviratne and Ashan Lester Martino

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Background of the study

Budgets are vital in management control processes and generally considered as formal, structural controlling mechanisms enlisted to support the controlling use. Thus, the budget is primarily considered as a coercive tool to assist management to coerce employees' compliance and effort ( Aleksandrov et al. , 2018 ; Horngren et al. , 2014 ; Lambovska et al. , 2019 ; Simons, 1994 ; Sponem and Lambert, 2016 ). However, budgets are not only a diagnostic tool to serve a routine controlling use with a coercive orientation but a mode of coordinating and communicating the strategic priorities of the organisation ( Abernethy and Brownell, 1999 ; O'grady, 2019 ). In the study of a rolling budget, viewing the process from enabling perspective, Henttu-Aho (2016) emphasises that new budgetary practice enables to build a holistic view of the totality of control and supply more relevant information about organisation in a more realistic manner while improving the flexibility and effectiveness of the budgetary work. In public sector organisations, diverse aspect of budgeting including diagnostic and enabling uses are investigated within the effort of complying with statutorily obligations to improve the efficiency ( Jakobsen and Pallesen, 2017 ; Mkasiwa, 2019 ).

By moving beyond the technical–rational function of budgeting as a means of affecting control, the budget is considered as a “multi-faceted phenomenon” in public sector organisations ( Covaleski et al. , 2013 ). Within the wider depiction of budgetary control as a socially constructed phenomenon, an array of research focusses on how budgets are instrumental in shaping behaviour and how budgets emerge as a response to governmental reforms, multiple logics and strategic behaviour in public organisational settings ( Aleksandrov et al. , 2018 ; Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Covaleski and Dirsmith, 1983 , 1986 ; Covaleski et al. , 2013 ; Ezzamel et al. , 2012 ; Harun et al. , 2020 ; Moll and Hoque, 2011 ).

In what ways are specific patterns of dispositions and power relations attuned with the taken-for-granted (doxical) elements in constituting/reconstituting budgetary control practices?

What are the strategies of action [1] of internal agents, how do strategies of action or series of moves emanate from the “practical sense” of budgeting and are deployed in constituting/reconstituting budgetary control practices in a specific field?

This article results from a study of budgetary practice by deploying a qualitative in-depth case study approach in a one large Sri Lankan public university, and the paper differs from prior research in two aspects. First, this study contributes to the management accounting literature by investigating how the impacts stemming from the micro level, including specific practices, competing interests and diverse power relations of internal agents, can shape budgetary control practices of a specific setting. Second, the current study emphasises the significance of understanding the budgetary practice and its practical logic, as opposed to formal, conscious and strategic forms of a public university.

Theoretical framework

The notion of “practice” shares a common theme as the “understanding of how people act in organizational context and relations between the actions people take and the structures of organizational life” ( Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011 , p. 1240). Based on sociological perspectives, Bourdieu formulated a practice theory based on relational thinking to understand the social world in an alternative way ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ). According to Bourdieu, habitus, capital and field are necessarily interconnected, interdependent and co-constructed, conceptually and empirically ( Grenfell, 2008 ). Bourdieu presented an equation to summarise the practice as a result of relations between one's disposition (habitus) and position in the field, which is primarily determined by endowed capital within the contemporary state of play in a particular social domain in its pragmatic sense ( Bourdieu, 2013 , p. 95): ( Habitus × Capital ) + Field = Practice .

In any field, people's behaviour/activities (what people do) are governed by an array of dispositions (practical senses), dubbed as “habitus” ( Bourdieu, 1990 ). Habitus is considered as a practical feel or practical mastery for the game agents' strategic actions are informed by habitus in a given field are not imputed by rational or conscious choice ( Bourdieu, 1990 ; Hurtado, 2010 ) but beyond the deliberate control ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ; Wacquant, 1998 ). Generally, social practices are denoted as strategies, and particular types of social actions or strategies of different groups are generated by that particular group's habitus ( Hurtado, 2010 ).

Central to assertions put forth by Bourdieu (1990) , social space is dubbed as the “field” in which people undertake diverse activities, ruled according to specific interests and its own stakes. The notion of field is created as an attempt to conceptualise a configuration of a network, of objective relations between positions ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ), hierarchically endowed with diverse types of capital. “Doxa” is defined as a set of pre-reflexive, commonly shared, unquestioned, taken-for-granted understandings, spontaneous perceptions and opinions prevailing across the social space determining the natural practice and sense of limits of habitus of the agents in a particular field ( Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ; Grenfell, 2008 ). Agents in dominant positions in the field are granted the power to mould or shape the doxic elements prevailing in the field ( Bourdieu, 1977 ; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ).

As “capital does not exist and function except in relation to a field” ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 101), field situates agents in the field of forces, power relations and desires towards practices. Capital is the stake or weapon mobilised in ongoing power balancing between actors and considered as an outcome of the ongoing position-takings in everyday work ( Bjerregaard and Klitmøller, 2016 ; Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011 ; Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Maclean et al. , 2012 ; Schneidhofer et al. , 2015 ). In the theory of power relations, Bourdieu terms “species of capital” as a diverse range of materials and other types of resources accrued by agents in achieving a privileged position in a particular social space ( Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ). Cultural capital, economic capital and social capital are recognised as different forms of capital or resources.

Baxter and Chua (2008) empirically narrated the chief financial officer’s (CFO) practical involvement in terms of habitus in organisational projects and the unorthodox management accounting practices implemented in the organisational setting. In a different context, Lodhia and Jacobs (2013) used Bourdieu's triad concepts of field, habitus and capital in a public sector department in Australia to examine the practical logics of internal practices produced at an individual level in environmental reporting. Goddard (2004) investigated the association between accounting, governance and accountability in local government in the UK, emphasising Bourdieu's notion of habitus. Célérier and Botey (2015) reported a socio-ethnographic study on how participatory budgeting was characterised by accountability practices favouring the election of councillors with distinctive capitals, who were “dominated-dominants dominating the dominated” amongst the budgeting participants. By taking an ethnographic approach, Bourdieu's interdependent relation between habitus, capital and field was used by Jayasinghe and Wickramasinghe (2011) to capture how a particular structural logic governed the resource allocation mechanism of the village. The study by Xu and Xu (2008) investigated interactions and relations between social actors in the field of Chinese banking to demonstrate how actors in social positions possess diverse resources, power and capital, leading some to dominate others.

Strategy as a practice has been merged in a distinctive approach to study organisational strategy and strategising, inclusive of strategic management, decision-making and managerial work ( Gomez, 2010 ; Hurtado, 2010 ; Jarzabkowski et al. , 2007 ; Whittington, 1996 , 2006 ). Hutaibat (2019) used Bourdieu's theory of practice in a Jordanian higher education sector to examine the perceptions of actors in the field, regarding strategising, accounting for strategic management and power structures. Drawing insights from Bourdieusian perspective, Bjerregaard and Klitmøller (2016) examined how subsidiary actors accommodate, actively support and resist various parts of an HQ-mandated management control system in a multinational corporation in a Mexican special economic zone.

Overall, while the above research has been influential in informing the application of the Bourdieusian threefolded concepts to explore the dynamics of individuals, our study aims to explore the internal agents' practical actions, providing a sense of the practices in budgetary controls which were being enacted through the agents who are situated in diverse positions in a field study of a public university.

Research setting, method and design

Based on the research questions and theoretical considerations, this study is founded on qualitative data, applying a single-case study strategy. According to Bourdieu's methodological principles, a one large Sri Lankan public university, i.e. University Sigma is selected as “determinate place in social space”, ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 214) and data are collected over a period of six months during 2014/2015. It is a period in which University Sigma is receptive as it is moving towards an outcome-oriented culture and striving to achieve the standards of a world-class university, under the strategic plan of the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) of Sri Lanka in 2010. As the performance-based initiatives have been reinforced through the circulation of finance circulars informing all universities that additional funds will be released based on the performance, initial steps have been taken to change the strategic performance management system, along with university budgeting to create high-performing state-owned universities.

Currently, University Sigma operates under the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978, which provides powers to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to intervene directly in university's routine and non-routine operations. University Sigma must comply with the rules and regulations enforced by the UGC and MHE and is subject to the usual public sector financial regulations of the Treasury and Ministry of Finance and Planning. This affects the university's ability to set salaries, retain income generated, sell assets and reinvest the proceeds and raise capital through loans from banks. The governance structure of University Sigma consists of four official boards: the administrative council, the senate (academic board), faculty boards and postgraduate academic boards. Amongst these, the university council is the primary governing body. Other than the chancellor, the main officers of the university are recognised in the University Act as the vice chancellor, registrar, librarian, bursar (treasurer) and the deans of faculties. The vice chancellor is the chief executive officer and principal academic officer who entitled to convene, be present and speak at any meeting of University Sigma.

A total of 35 in-depth interviews were conducted with diverse agents at various hierarchical levels within the research organisation, and interviewees were selected based on the importance of their role with respect to budgetary control. To complete the interview, time varies from 40 min to 120 min. Leaning on the theoretical lens of Bourdieu's practice theory, broad questions were formulated to guide the pilot interviews. Being capitalised on the insights made initially, questions for the subsequent interview questions were refined, capturing the richness of the field. Interview and non-participant observational data were supplemented by different archival records to reinforce the interviewee findings. Moreover, complementing the interviews, direct observations were carried out and field notes were compared to reconfirm and add more insights into interviewee comments.

Thematic analysis is commenced as a prerequisite to making sense, verifications and drawing conclusions from the empirical findings. The interviews were transcribed and then the transcripts were closely examined, key themes highlighted and coding carried out. Once themes have been finalised, templates were prepared for each and every theme to tag and place the information from interview transcripts, observational notes, field notes and archival documents into the identified categories. Thus, to bring the richness of the phenomena under study, the theoretical framework also becomes an important guide in searching for the patterns amongst the coded field evidence and thereby the sense-making process and drawing conclusions were essentially integrated with the theoretical underpinnings of Bourdieu's theory of social actions.

Budgeting control: knowing in practice

The next section discusses how budget as a means of affecting control and also to facilitate the attainment of imposed strategic priorities take place confronting complexities, concerns and conflicting goals amongst the multiple agents within a public university setting.

Individual/group power on the university budget preparation

The budgeting process is officially initiated in the month of August, with the acceptance of the finance circular of the budget call from the UGC. After this, the university bursar communicates the budgetary guidelines to faculty deans, faculty bursars, the registrar and all heads of the service units as a prerequisite to embark on the journey of the budget preparation. The budget committee consists of the deans of the faculties, senior financial and administrative officers (bursars and registrars), the librarian and all other heads of service units of University Sigma and it coordinates the planning phase. The budget committee is chaired by the vice chancellor, who is supposed to act as chair; however, a university bursar is accountable for all deliberations, ranging from the planning to controlling facets in the budgeting process.

We don't have any guarantee whether we'll be given the necessary funds that we requested through the budgetary allocations. So, our staff may not be motivated to participate actively in the planning processes. So why should we prepare our plans if there is no assurance of getting the requested funds?

Consistent with Bourdieu, acknowledging the fact that habitus could be reflected in all practices, the particular action patterns of academic members in budget planning is understood by referring to the deeply embedded doxic experiences that are self-evident within the existing relations of a specific setting ( Lau, 2004 ). According to Hutaibat (2019) , academics tend towards the passively supporting for a proposal collection phase depending upon their doxa and their relation to the more power structure which is embedded in a specific setting. As departmental agents believe that the submission of their proposals will not be fruitful due to possible funding constraints, such regularities potentially impact on making sense of particular action patterns of agents [1] in a specific context ( Grenfell, 2008 ). In a similar vein, another member of an academic department spelled out the underlying reason for their passive participation in the budgetary planning process, “What is the point of spending quite a lot of time in preparing the budget proposals if we can get small amount comparative to what we request?” As above, words provide evidence that actions and perceptions of general academics are habituated by the realities perceived and regularities pursued in relation to the difficulty of getting intended monetary allocations in the particular social space ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ). According to Vaughan (2002), when understanding practical actions, people's habitus is not merely informed by surroundings of their early lives but also by the doxa that remains as unquestioned opinions and perceptions to determine the “sense of limits” of agents participating in the budgeting practice ( Grenfell, 2008 , p. 120).

Persuaded by the importance of capturing the profound aspect of overall habitus of general academics (doxa), the interviews conducted with administration/financial officers of University Sigma highlighted the implicit power that academics possessed based on the doxic understanding that persists in the specific social setting. Hence, from the theoretical point of view, as “doxa” in the organisational setting is necessary for symbolic power ( Hurtado, 2010 ), it causes to attune the habitus of the agents in the research setting under study. A senior project officer reiterated a sense of disappointment, reflecting that doxa refers to capital concerning the symbolic power of academic agents ( Kloot, 2009 , p. 472) and how possession of symbolic power tends to influence the initial planning stage. Alongside symbolic capital informed by doxa, departmental academics are endowed with not only an institutionalised form of cultural capital, in terms of certificates, skills and knowledge, but also intellectual capital, termed “scientific renown” [2] , associated with scholarly reputation on research ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 76). In the public higher education field, those with the institutionalised form of cultural capital, together with intellectual capital, are considered to be “advantaged at the outset as the field depends mainly on such forms of capitals” ( Grenfell, 2008 , p. 69). Since such forms of capitals are valued by the social agents who operate in that social space, they become symbolic capital in the specific field.

Hence, as confessed by several interviewees, general academics are assigned with symbolic authority that situates them in a privileged position of power at Sigma, enabling them to secure benefits and enhance their stake in the social area ( Bjerregaard and Klitmøller, 2016 ; Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Hurtado, 2010 ). Given that general academics are granted the power to shape understanding in relation to budgetary practice, in applying the rules and procedures of the practice in the university setting ( Bourdieu, 1977 ; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ), they tend to impose their doxical understanding on the control practice, even while overlooking the accepted procedures to be accomplished in budgetary planning ( Kloot, 2009 ).

Therefore, corresponding with Bourdieu's assertions, it could be argued that general academics are not mere preprogrammed automatons governed by immutable and unchanging laws as their practices are minimally determined by the specific rules and requirements of budgetary practice. As Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) asserted, based on the distinct profiles of capital (power resources) associated with agents in the research organisation, a distinction is drawn between dominant and dominated positions ( Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ). Within the field, winners/losers and dominancy of the field are determined by the volume and structure of resources associated with different agents; agents possessing more capital relevant to a particular field are considered dominant, with greater possibility in actions to be executed. Dominant agents pursue conservation strategies to preserve the hierarchical principles and safeguard their positions in the hierarchy; in contrast, subversion strategies are pursued by dominated agents to transform the existing system of authority for their benefit ( Wacquant, 1998 ). Thus, as the general academics are situated in the dominant positions, holding symbolic power to secure their stake within the power configuration of University Sigma ( Célérier and Botey, 2015 ), their symbolic power exacerbates goal conflicts amongst other agents being potentially problematic for effective planning of the university budget ( Bjerregaard and Klitmøller, 2016 ). At University Sigma, capacity over interpreting some budgeting procedures is transferred from agents of the university top management to general academics rather by losing the power to obtain the desired contribution from general academics in the planning phase ( Mutiganda et al. , 2013 ).

Against a backdrop where pervasive power relations operate at the bottom level of the social space, it was difficult to determine whether deans have the capacity to exercise power over agents at the departmental level in enforcing their participation in the planning phase. Top faculty agents hold significant academic capital [3] , which is acquired and maintained by taking a top position in the management hierarchy of the university and enables domination of other positions ( Kloot, 2009 ). Such academic capital mainly depends on the principle of legitimation, corresponding to the fact that the organisational hierarchy is well aligned with social power ( Kloot, 2009 ). Given that, faculty deans are identified as powerful or dominant agents, possessing broad power resources and organisational capital, providing the ability to act as “master” in terms of the rules and procedures of planning and other operational matters associated with the budgetary process ( Bourdieu, 2005 ).

In terms of capturing actual practices of key university agents in the planning phase, this revealed that the faculty dean's actions, interests and perceptions are derived as adherence to the sense of what is appropriate and proper in a given situation ( Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ). According to Célérier and Botey (2015) , being an influential agent in the faculty, the faculty dean has the liberty to decide and accommodate the activities in the faculty budget, without referring to subordinate agents' proposals (the heads of departments). Based on the endowed social networks, the faculty dean has the capacity to obtain necessary funds for the budget proposals that he included in faculty budgets according to his discretion, bypassing the granted budget allocations.

Substantiating the above insights, faculty dean 2 described how agents tend to act on the practical understanding of the logic of budgeting, which determines the “doable and thinkable” limits over the phase of budget planning ( Grenfell, 2008 , pp. 54–59; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ). As the top faculty officers possessing practical expertise in planning and operational issues pertinent to the faculty budgetary process, they tend to minimise lapses which arise due to insufficient participation from the academic departments. Irrespective of the formal budget procedures, they act with the tacit knowing of the way of things happen in the particular social space, to achieve the full potential of the faculty through budgetary planning ( Gomez, 2010 ). Thus, the field empirical evidence revealed that due to insufficient participation of departmental agents in gathering necessary input to prepare the budget, budget planning is centred in the hands of the bursar and dean of the faculty.

In the second phase, the programme budget [4] is prepared by considering budget proposals included in the budget call. As stipulated by the UGC in the budget specimen, the accounting rationale of linking performance indicators, action plans and monetary allocations is to intensify the controlling aspect of the university budget. Moreover, by reiterating the negative consequences of passive participation of academic departments in the initial budget planning, university bursar 1 highlighted the challenge of identifying key performance indicators and linking such measures accurately to ensure employees' behaviour aligned with targets stipulated in the university budget ( Widener, 2007 ).

From an accounting perspective, planning is considered as an important aspect of budgetary process because it is related to the subsequent control phase in the organisational control process. However, in the absence of realistic information from the bottom level as senior bursars at the university level tend to act without clear strategic intentions linking desired outcomes and budgetary allocations. They tend to preserve the existing order in preparing the budget in compliance with the UGC, in spite of the underlying accounting logic of prioritising and linking strategic aims with the estimated financial disbursements. Hence, the budget as a “control tool” is not effective in the planning process ( Covaleski et al. , 2013 , p. 338); rather, planning merely fulfils compliance controls, to avoid any explicit violation of budget guidelines imposed by higher education authorities ( Cunningham, 2004 ).

Practical logics of actions in managing the university budget

Examining human conduct around the programme budget reveals that it is a product of individual strategic choice in a university setting ( Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ). Speaking about the pervasive engagement undertaken in fulfilling the requests for financial disbursements made by diverse organisational agents, either within or beyond the given programme budget, university bursar 1 continued, “Budget is a guideline. But we can do more work even beyond the budget if we really want to work in improving the status of university”. Many interviews with bursars at different hierarchical and faculty levels reflected the need to take spontaneous actions without being merely confined to the programme budget ( Bourdieu, 1990 ; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ). Acknowledging this, a senior assistant bursar of the finance division noted, “Even though some of the activities are not in a budget plan, there are possibilities to meet those requests with the special approval”. According to Bourdieu's terminology, in fulfilling the diverse requests made by internal agents, bursars pursue “immanent necessity”, without being restricted to the preprogrammed disbursement levels ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ).

Noting that budgetary requests are facilitated in a manner compatible with the budget guidelines, an assistant bursar said, “In many instances, we had to handle requests for financial disbursements on situational basis without violating the fundamental budget guidelines”. Thus, bursars have developed a strong practical mastery in the art of managing the university budgetary process, without explicitly violating the budgetary rules and guidelines on stipulated strategic objectives and budget limits in day-to-day operations ( Baxter and Chua, 2008 ). In accordance with these insights, university bursar 1 noted the significance of undertaking actions based on reasonableness and the effort she made in handling such requests from the departmental level.

In particular, a university bursar is endowed with “technically-based bureaucratic capital” and “bureaucratic capital of experience” through acquiring knowledge of regulations and more rationalised procedures and techniques pertinent to the budgetary practices over a longer period ( Bourdieu, 2005 , p. 117). Therefore, based on the wider positional capacities, the university bursar is capable of reconsidering whether to facilitate ad hoc financial disbursement requests made by the faculty bursar that are not appropriately tabled in the programme budget or for which allocated funds are not adequate. Thus, the dispositions of bursars are set up by unconscious learning and also incorporating embedded field values in the practice of university budgeting.

In compliance with the budgetary guidelines, the university bursar may strive to obtain special approval from the finance committee of University Sigma to fulfil requests of a recurrent nature beyond the programme budget. In another instance, a university bursar noted how she struggled to get approval for disbursements of a capital nature from the UGC, which was supposed to be approved by the finance committee and council of University Sigma. From a practice perspective, rules do not always bring an end to actions; rather, agents negotiate the rules with the necessary authorities in order to facilitate the accomplishment of certain actions, by overseeing budgetary limits strategically in the social space under study ( Swartz, 2002 ). Seen in this light, the university bursar is an individual who is capable of justifying certain actions or requests to the higher authorities of the university (i.e. the finance committee and council), which are not in fact explicitly specified in university budget but accepted by higher authorities of university as appropriate ( King, 2000 ).

Consistent with Inghilleri (2005) , it is evident that the strategic actions pursued by bursars depend on the knowledge gathered to “know” how budgetary controls operate, embodied in the negotiating the official budgetary rules to minimise adverse effects, for their own conservation in a university setting. However, field evidence vividly reflects how tension is triggered between the need to fulfil the ad hoc requests with necessary monetary disbursements outside to the budget and the necessity to comply with budgetary limits and procedures. As bursar 6 noted, “However by satisfying our staff's requests, we should be compliance with budgetary rules and guidelines. We have to manage both sides”. Further substantiating these views, bursar 4 voiced her grievances about how the symbolic power of departmental agents creates conflicting interests in managing the budget within the pre-planned budget limits ( Semeen et al. , 2016 ). According to Farjaudon and Morales (2013) , it is clear that the dominated, i.e. bursars may “participate in the pursuit of dominant interests, possibly unknowingly or in the belief that they are pursuing their own interests” (p. 155).

The given nature of bursars' practices could be understood as a practical logic of the way that things happen in the budgetary process in the specific research setting under study. Therefore, without strictly adhering to programme budgets, agents may pursue strategies premised on a practical sense of budgetary practice to produce certain actions in the social space under enquiry ( McDonough, 2006 ). Interviewees at the finance division revealed that, irrespective of the requests made beyond the budget, bursars tend to capitalise on their practical mastery of budgetary functions to fulfil requests not only to satisfy the departmental or faculty-level agents but to maintain or enhance personal credibility amongst members of University Sigma ( Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ).

As revealed in the interviews with financial officers, university financial officers have devised strategies to ensure the continuity of university operations increasing the capabilities of University Sigma and to maintain or develop credibility towards bursars by negotiating budgetary rules with the necessary authorities ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ). Hence, being the embodiment of “immanent regularities and tendencies” relating to the budgeting practice ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 138), the specific perceptions and actions of university bursars are attuned to expedite activities as planned in the university budget. This is consistent with the exploration of Baxter and Chua (2008) , who characterised the CFO's habitus from a technical accounting angle, allowing a demonstration of the competencies in managing a diverse range of activities of different lines of business in a large company.

Being an agent responsible for the overall university budgetary process, the university bursar (top financial officer) explained how her individual practices are frequently inscribed with social determination attached to the position where she operates ( King, 2005 ). However, there are instances where the university bursar engaged in budgetary process significantly depends on her discretion to realise the targets in the university budget. Thus, day-to-day individual actions are not simply constrained by the external constraints; instead, they are informed by the deeply ingrained past experiences and restraints offered by the present conditions ( Swartz, 2002 ). Although the budget is considered a mechanism to exert control over the agents who are expected to operate within the predefined limits, these limits can be exploited by the specific practical actions of the bursars ( Ahrens and Chapman, 2004 ; Wouters and Wilderom, 2008 ). Without explicitly violating the rules of budgetary practice, bursars place great emphasis on enabling the situations by going beyond the pre-planned budgetary limits in line with their “sense of practice” to ensure the best for University Sigma ( Grenfell, 2008 ; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ; Raedeke et al. , 2003 ; Swartz, 2002 ).

Concluding discussion

The paper has examined in what ways do field, capital and habitus interplay to determine individual strategies of actions (practices) reflected through perceptions, appreciations, tensions and conflicting interests and how do they influence budgetary control practice. In conclusion, the empirical evidence suggested that practices are not conscious or mechanistic obedience to a rigid set of rules, guidelines and procedures of budgetary control; instead, their specific practices are attuned with “practical sense” or “taken-for-granted sense” of the regular budgetary practice prevailing in the public university setting ( Bourdieu, 1990 ; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ; Hutaibat, 2019 ). Further, Bourdieu's theorisation of social practices illustrated how individuals/groups are enabled to choose strategies of actions in budgetary control as a product of specific dispositions and interests associated with the particular power position in a given field ( Battilana, 2006 ; Boedker, 2010 ; Carter et al. , 2011 ; Hutaibat, 2019 ; Khanchel and Kahla, 2013 ; Vaughan, 2008 ). Taking into account Bourdieu's practice insights, as the dispositions of general academics are informed by symbolic power, doxa and self-evident understanding in the particular setting, the subversion strategies are evident in the budget-setting phase ( Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ; Hutaibat, 2019 ; Semeen et al. , 2016 ).

As Hutaibat (2019) asserted different forms of capital create power structures of the specific field, such power diversity and power relations are evident amongst the agents of University Sigma. Further, being consistent with Carter et al. (2011) who suggested that power structures are capable of influencing the strategising, accounting and decision- making, it is evident that budgeting practices are shaped by key university agents (i.e. deans) and their experiences. Similarly, being situated in the subservient position in the university power configuration, finance/administrative officers tend to silently accept the budgetary rules in the policy-laden context by indicating successive strategies.

As with the findings of Lodhia and Jacobs (2013) , particularly finance/administrative officers are skilful agents with a strong sense of practical mastery in the art of operating the budgetary process. By negotiating the rules of budgetary practice, their actions typically emanate from the “immanent necessary” to sustain the enlisted coercive tendencies in support of achieving control in the budgetary process ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ; Swartz, 2002 ). However, based on the sense of practice, with a vested interest in compliance with the existing order of control practice to ensure survival in the current position in the university hierarchy, there could be instances where agents may act by giving an appearance of obeying rules in the actual budgetary practice ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ).

When probing the practices of internal agents, it is suggested that budgetary practice is often driven by financial/administrative agents who are situated at subservient positions in the university field. In conclusion, the case data on institutionally imposed budgeting practice suggested that the micro effects stemming from multiple agents who pursue competing interests, mutually opposed strategies and power relations are significant in understanding variability in budgetary practice in a public university setting ( Al-Htaybat and Von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2018 ).

It is discerned through this study that differing positions in the power configuration, access to resources in the field and dispositions of individuals determine the nature and extent of effects that agents can produce on management control practices ( Battilana, 2006 ; Khanchel and Ben Kahla, 2013 ; Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ; Vaughan, 2008 ). In line with Vaughan's (2008) assertion, “social location was crucial to the outcome” (p. 76); the study suggested that an individual's position in the organisational power hierarchy is essential in understanding how their perceptions, appreciations and power relations are enabled to deploy specific practices and exert power in an organisational setting. Consistent with Emirbayer and Williams (2005) , the field analysis provides understanding on the mutually opposing interests and strategies of internal agents pursuing conservation, subversion and successive strategies in management control practice, depending on the degree of dominated or dominant poles recognised in the power configuration ( Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Vaughan, 2008 ).

The most compelling implication for practitioners arising from the study is the importance of understanding that management controls are not all they seem to be; rather, they could operate differently, in irrational, unconscious or non-strategic ways, in the actual practice of the budgetary process. It is vital to understand that management controls (i.e. budgeting) are commonly shaped by the micro-facets stemming from the individual/group level of the specific organisational setting. Thus, the study provides insights about the need to explore below the surface as management control practice is seldom as it appears to be.

As several agents interact in management control practices in diverse ways, agents are generally recognised according to the nature of their duties and professional capacity in the Sigma setting. The first category is identified as agents who are predominantly academics, who currently hold top administrative positions in the faculty or university level in the research setting. In order to denote the positions that carry these characteristics, we use the term “key university official”. The second category is identified as agents who purely hold middle- and top-level administrative and administration of finance positions, such as the university registrar and bursar. The third category is denoted as “academic member”, with a primary role dealing with teaching, learning and research.

Scientific renown refers to intellectual or scientific capital deriving from scholarly reputation and is not necessarily connected to position within the institution ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 76).

Obtaining and maintaining the top hierarchical position enables domination of other positions and holders of different capital.

In this phase, the budget preparation changes from a “needs” basis to an “availability” basis.

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Further reading

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As IT systems become an important competitive element in many industries, technology projects are getting larger, touching more parts of the organization, and posing a risk to the company if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, things often do go wrong. Our research, conducted in collaboration with the University of Oxford, suggests that half of all large IT projects—defined as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million—massively blow their budgets. On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns 1 1. For another cut of the data—one focused on all IT projects in the database (not just the large ones)—see Alexander Budzier and Bent Flyvbjerg, “Why your IT project may be riskier than you think,” Harvard Business Review , September 2011. (Exhibit 1).

These findings—consistent across industries—emerged from research recently conducted on more than 5,400 IT projects 2 2. IT projects are continually added to the database. This round of research is based on the more than 5,400 projects that were in the database as of June 2012. by McKinsey and the BT Centre for Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford. After comparing budgets, schedules, and predicted performance benefits with the actual costs and results, we found that these IT projects, in total, had a cost overrun of $66 billion, more than the GDP of Luxembourg. We also found that the longer a project is scheduled to last, the more likely it is that it will run over time and budget, with every additional year spent on the project increasing cost overruns by 15 percent.

The performance of different types of IT projects varies significantly.

Staggering as these findings are, most companies survive the pain of cost and schedule overruns. However, 17 percent of IT projects go so bad that they can threaten the very existence of the company. These unpredictable high-impact events—“black swans” in popular risk parlance—occur significantly more often than would be expected under a normal distribution. Large IT projects that turn into black swans are defined as those with budget overruns of more than 200 percent (and up to 400 percent at the extreme end of the spectrum). Such overruns match or surpass those experienced by black swans among complex construction projects such as tunnels and bridges. One large retailer started a $1.4 billion effort to modernize its IT systems, but the project was eventually abandoned. As the company fell behind its competitors, it initiated another project—a new system for supply-chain management—to the tune of $600 million. When that effort failed, too, the retailer had to file for bankruptcy.

Four ways to improve project performance

So how do companies maximize the chances that their IT projects deliver the expected value on time and within budget? Our surveys of IT executives indicate that the key to success lies in mastering four broad dimensions, which combined make up a methodology for large-scale IT projects that we call “value assurance.” The following elements make up this approach:

focusing on managing strategy and stakeholders instead of exclusively concentrating on budget and scheduling

mastering technology and project content by securing critical internal and external talent

building effective teams by aligning their incentives with the overall goals of projects

excelling at core project-management practices, such as short delivery cycles and rigorous quality checks

According to survey responses, an inability to master the first two dimensions typically causes about half of all cost overruns, while poor performance on the second two dimensions accounts for an additional 40 percent of overspending (Exhibit 2).

IT executives identify 4 groups of issues that cause most project failures.

1. managing strategy and stakeholders.

IT initiatives too often pay little heed to strategy and stakeholders and manage projects purely according to budget and schedule targets. The perils are illustrated by one bank’s transformation effort, in which its finance department became involved only a few months before the system was due to go live. This led to several complex changes in the accounting modules as a result of a recently introduced performance-management system. Coming so late in the day, the changes delayed the launch by more than three months, at a cost of more than $8 million.

Top-performing projects, on the other hand, establish a clear view of the initiative’s strategic value—one that goes beyond the technical content. By building a robust business case and maintaining focus on business objectives along the whole project timeline, successful teams can avoid cost overruns. They can also, for example, ensure faster customer response times, obtain higher-quality data for the marketing organization, or reduce the number of required manual processes.

High-performing project teams also improve the ways in which a company manages its internal and external stakeholders, such as business and IT executives, vendors, partners, and regulators. They make sure the project aligns with the company’s overarching business strategy and undertake detailed analyses of stakeholder positions. Project leaders continually engage with all business unit and functional heads to ensure genuine alignment between business needs and the IT solutions being developed.

Good stakeholder management involves foresight when it comes to selecting vendors and negotiating contracts with them. Company negotiators should proactively identify potential risks and, for instance, expand their focus beyond unit price and seek to establish “win–win” agreements. Doing so can help ensure that the company has preferential access to the vendor’s best talent for an extended period of time.

Some companies have learned this the hard way. A bank in the Middle East negotiated hard for price with a vendor and later suffered at the hands of an inexperienced vendor team. Another bank scored well on unit price with a software-package provider for the project phase of a trading-system implementation but encountered high costs for changes and support after the system was introduced and the bank was locked into the new technology.

2. Mastering technology and content

Drawing on expert help as needed, high-performing teams orchestrate all technical aspects of the project, including IT architecture and infrastructure, functionality trade-offs, quality assurance, migration and rollout plans, and project scope. The right team will understand both business and technical concerns, which is why companies must assign a few high-performing and experienced experts for the length of the program. We estimate that the appropriate experts can raise performance by as much as 100 percent through their judgment and ability to interpret data patterns.

One common pitfall occurs when teams focus disproportionately on technology issues and targets. A bank wanted to create a central data warehouse to overcome inconsistencies that occurred among its business-unit finance data, centralized finance data, and risk data. However, the project team focused purely on developing the IT-architecture solution for the data warehouse instead of addressing the end goal, which was to handle information inconsistencies. As a result, the project budget ballooned as the team pursued architectural “perfection,” which involved the inclusion of unneeded data from other systems. This added huge amounts of unnecessary complexity. With milestones and launch dates constantly being pushed back and investments totaling almost $10 million, the bank stopped the project after 18 months.

In contrast, one public-sector institution was able to rescope and simplify its IT project’s technical requirements even though most stakeholders believed doing so was impossible. To eliminate waste and to focus on the items that represented the greatest business value, the team introduced lean 3 3. For more on lean techniques in IT, see Nicklas Ilebrand, Tor Mesøy, and Remco Vlemmix, “ Using IT to enable a lean transformation ,” mckinseyquarterly.com, February 2010. techniques. At the same time, it established rigorous testing and rollout plans to ensure quality and introduced clearly defined stage gates. Through these and other actions, the team was able to check 95 percent of all test cases, fix critical defects, and verify the fixes before continuing from the unit test phase to integration testing.

3. Building effective teams

Large projects can take on a life of their own in an organization. To be effective and efficient, project teams need a common vision, shared team processes, and a high-performance culture. To build a solid team, members should have a common incentive structure that is aligned with the overall project goal, in contrast with individual work-stream goals. A business-to-technology team that is financially aligned with the value-delivery targets will also ensure that all the critical change-management steps are taken and that, for example, communications with the rest of the organization are clear, timely, and precise.

To ensure the smooth start-up of new front-end and core systems that more than 8,000 people would use, one company team launched a massive—and successful—change-management program. The program included a regular newsletter, desktop calendars that highlighted key changes and milestones, and quarterly town-hall meetings with the CEO. The team made sure all top business-unit leaders were involved during the user-acceptance phase. The company included at least one change agent on each team. These agents received training that instilled a clear understanding of the benefits of the IT change. The actions helped the company to verify that it had the required business capabilities in place to make full use of the technology being implemented and that it could deliver the business value expected in the overall project business case.

4. Excelling at core project-management practices

To achieve effective project management, there’s no substitute for tested practices. These include having a strategic and disciplined project-management office and establishing rigorous processes for managing requirements engineering and change requests. The project office should establish a few strong stage gates to ensure high-quality end products. At the same time, it needs to strive for a short delivery life cycle to avoid creating waste in the development process.

One public-sector organization established strong project control by defining an initiative’s scope in an initial six-month phase and making sure all stakeholders signed off on the plan. Beyond this phase, the organization’s board had to approve all change requests, and the project was given a pre-defined cost-overrun buffer of less than $2 million. Another organization, a high-tech company, established clear quality criteria for a project master plan, which mandated that teams break down all activities so that they required fewer than 20 person-days to complete and took no longer than four weeks.

In yet another case, instead of following a “waterfall” 4 4. The waterfall model is a sequential software-development process in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downward—like a waterfall—through the phases of conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, and maintenance. or linear approach, a company created integrated business and IT teams that worked on an end-to-end basis in their respective work streams. In other words, the teams participated from the beginning of the project to its completion—from defining requirements to testing. This approach helps to avoid misunderstandings during stage transitions and ensures clear responsibility and ownership. It also promotes efficiency gains and fast delivery.

Assessing the black-swan risk

The high rate of failure makes it wise to analyze prospects before starting a large IT project.

Companies usually begin with a diagnostic to determine the status of their key projects and programs—both finalized and existing projects (to understand company-specific problems) and planned projects (to estimate their true cost and duration). This diagnostic determines two conditions: the health of a project from the standpoint of the four dimensions of the value-assurance methodology (Exhibit 3) and its relative prospects when compared with the outcomes of a reference class 5 5. Reference-class forecasting predicts the outcome of a planned action based on actual outcomes in a reference class of actions similar to that being forecast. The theories behind reference-class forecasting were developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky and helped Kahneman win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Today reference-class forecasting is practiced in both public- and private-sector policy and management. of similar projects.

A ‘value assurance’ assessment indicates how a project is doing against 4 groups of success factors.

This comparative assessment may have helped a health care provider avoid disaster. The provider was about to spend about $1 billion over eight years to replace its health-care -management system—an amount twice as large and a duration twice as long as any comparable IT project in the database. Given that the black-swan risk is largely driven by how long a project takes before it goes live, top management stopped the initiative at the green-light stage and asked the IT team to revise the plan. Leaders also charged the team with planning for intermediate checkpoints. The latest estimate is now in line with comparable projects in the database, and it still delivers the desired scope.

In another case, an organization used a broader and more interview-driven diagnostic approach to identify critical improvement areas. The organization had recently experienced failures that led it to make a commitment to reform IT and drive fundamental improvement in IT project delivery. The diagnostic helped it realize that the major hurdle to creating a well-defined business case was the limited availability of funding during the prestudy phase. The study also revealed that the organization’s inability to arrive at a stable and accurate project scope resulted from the infrequent communication between project managers and stakeholders about issues such as new requirements and change requests, which led to deviations from the original scope.

The value-assurance approach has a solid track record. One large public-sector organization, for example, replaced about 50 legacy IT systems with a standard system for enterprise resource planning over the course of three years—within budget and on schedule—even though analysis of projects of this size and duration had indicated an expected budget overrun in the range of $80 million to $100 million. Similarly, a global insurance company used the approach to consolidate its IT infrastructure over 18 months, delivering the project on time and within budget and realizing savings of about $800 million a year.

Large-scale IT projects are prone to take too long, are usually more expensive than expected, and, crucially, fail to deliver the expected benefits. This need not be the case. Companies can achieve successful outcomes through an approach that helps IT and the business join forces in a commitment to deliver value. Despite the disasters, large organizations can engineer IT projects to defy the odds.

Michael Bloch is a director in McKinsey’s Tel Aviv office, Sven Blumberg is an associate principal in the Düsseldorf office, and Jürgen Laartz is a director in the Berlin office.

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Research Study Budget Design and Analysis

Budget development.

To properly negotiate budgets for research studies it is important to assess protocol feasibility and identify the costs to conduct the study. A study should not be pursued if it does not cover the costs to conduct it unless there are additional financial resources identified.

The first step to create a comprehensive budget is to develop an internal budget. Internal budgets are used for sites to identify all of their costs to conduct a study and can be used as a tool to negotiate the sponsor budget. It is critical to have a thorough understanding of the study documents to develop a comprehensive budget.  This entails reviewing the protocol, contract, consent, and case report forms to identify each procedure, visit, participant contact, supplies, and patient care costs that are needed to conduct the study.  It is recommended to identify the work that is required per participant.  All of the identified items should be listed in the internal budget.

Once all items are identified to conduct the study, a determination needs to be made if the service is considered Standard of Care (SOC) or Research Only.  Standard of Care services are those that are typically performed in the participant population for the disease being studied and will be billed to the patient/insurance.  Research Services are those that are performed for research purposes only.  Research services are NOT billed to the patient/insurance. See the Clinical Research Billing Guide for information regarding how to make this determination. Mark the SOC and Research determinations in the internal budget.  The Research services will be the costs to conduct the study.

It is important to note that one size does not fit all when it comes to budgeting.  There are many different types of studies and sponsors who all have different budgeting needs. There are, however, common core components to developing any study budget. Core budget components include administrative costs, travel, staff costs, supplies, equipment, patient care costs, etc.  There may also be a need for cost sharing or subcontracts. 

  • RBO Key Considerations for Internal Budgets for Industry Sponsored Clinical Trials
  • RBO Industry Sponsored Internal Budget Template
  • RBO Billing Decision Tree
  • RBO Clinical Research Billing Guide  

Administrative and Start up Costs

Administrative costs may include pharmacy fees; IRB fees, Institutional review fees, courier expenses, photocopying, secretarial supplies, parking fees, subject meals, phone lines, long distance charges, and storage expenses.  Facilities and Administrative (F&A) or Overhead costs also need to be considered.  F&A costs are those costs associated with providing and maintaining the infrastructure that supports the research enterprise (buildings and their maintenance, etc…) and which cannot easily be identified with a specific project. 

  • OSP Facilities and Administrative/ Overhead Costs

It is recommended that sites request one time, up front, non-refundable fees to cover the cost to prepare a study to start.  The idea is to get paid for work completed, even if the study does not start.  Sites must also remember to include one-time fees for the Institutional Review Boards, Hospital Research Offices, Pharmacies, etc...  

If a study requires travel to investigator meetings or training meetings those costs should be included in the budget.  Include costs for transportation, accommodations and per diem, registration, and all other allowable expenses.

  • OSP Travel Expenses  

Staffing/Salary Costs

When preparing the budget, it is important to identify the types of personnel involved in the study such as; faculty, research coordinators/nurses, research assistants, graduate associates, undergraduate associates, consultants etc… Staff percentage of time on the project needs to be identified along with their fringe benefit rates.  A Release Time Form must be completed for all faculty and staff for a research sponsored project.

Staffing costs may include the time it takes to attend the start-up meeting, prepare regulatory documents, prepare the budget, screen/recruit participants, obtain informed consent, schedule visits, complete CRFs, complete AE/SAEs forms, manage events, attend mandatory educational classes/training, attend monitoring visits, correct CRFs, answer queries, track lost to follow-up/no-shows, on-call time, and study close out. 

  • OSP Consultants Costs
  • OSP Fringe Benefit Rates
  • OSP Forms  

Supplies and Equipment

Common supplies include paper, pens, folders, binders, labels, laboratory tubes, venipuncture supplies, shipping materials, etc.  Equipment such as -70 Freezers or special imaging scanners may also be needed for certain studies.

  • OSP Equipment  

Patient Care Costs

Patient care costs include tests and procedures that are required only because the patient is participating in a research project - they are not a part of routine medical care. The cost of such tests, performed at OSU University Hospitals Health System and OSU Physician Practices and  billed by these entities , are patient care costs. Professional fees or costs collected by private billing agencies are not considered patient care costs.

Procedure costs should be easily identified by the study procedure outline.  Typical costs include lab tests, radiology procedures, ECGs, supplies for study treatment, and space or bed charges.  T

  • OSP Direct Costs

If the study involves services that may be billed to Medicare or third-party payers, Investigators are required to complete a Coverage Analysis form. The purpose of a coverage analysis is to ensure that the costs for items and services that are included as part of the study plan are billed to the appropriate payer and in compliance with applicable Medicare regulations for research billing. 

A coverage analysis can be performed many ways.  There is no “right” way to perform a coverage analysis.  There are, however, key steps to be completed during the process.  These steps are outlined in the Clinical Research Billing Guide. 

  • RBO Coverage Analysis Frequently Asked Questions
  • RBO Coverage Analysis Form
  • RBO Research Billing Guide

Subcontracts

A subcontract may be required if part of the research effort under a grant or contract is to be performed by another organization. If the subcontract is part of a proposal to a federal sponsor or from federal funds, please work with the Office of Sponsored Programs sponsored program officer to determine how to set up the sub-contract and how to budget.

  • OSP Subcontracts

Cost Sharing

Cost sharing means charging part of the costs of a sponsored project to a source other than the sponsor. If cost sharing is included in a proposal to a federal sponsor and the proposal is funded, the promised cost share becomes a requirement of the award whether or not that requirement is specified in the award document. All cost sharing must be documented as having been provided. Some costs, such as supplies, do not lend themselves readily to documentation and audit, so using these items as cost share should be avoided if at all possible.  If Cost Sharing is part of a proposal please work with the Office of Sponsored Programs sponsored program officer to determine how to set up the Cost Sharing arrangements and how to budget.

  • OSP Cost Sharing  

Negotiating the Budget

Compare the internal budget to the sponsor proposed budget.  If the sponsor budget does not cover the site’s costs to conduct the study propose changes to the budget.  Some sponsors will state that the budget is non-negotiable but it is always worth trying to negotiate to cover costs.  Sponsors tend to become more willing to negotiate once a site has developed a proven track record of conducting quality studies. 

Some studies may be worth subsidizing for scientific merit or for other reasons.  Departments or other providers may agree to subsidize studies.  It is recommended that the investigator gets written approval from the appropriate person for subsidizing an agreement to cover any outstanding costs to conduct the study.

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Budgeting Case Studies

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Automating the Budgeting Processes

Project duration, the situation.

A PE-backed technology business had recently doubled its size through an acquisition. The Company was continuing to use a legacy Excel model for all budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation reporting. With the latest acquisition, the model proved untenable as it needed 40 minutes to open and 30 minutes for a recalculation. Accordion was engaged to streamline the budgeting process and develop a business intelligence solution to reduce the budget preparation lead time.

Finance Function Automation

Budgeting & forecasting process improvement, granular margin & growth analysis, the execution.

  • Created a new budgeting process that established a centralized location to which all budget submissions from the product lines were placed.
  • Developed a template for standardized submissions.
  • Eliminated the manual process involved in combining budget submissions from over 20 groups across both companies by using extract, transform, and load (ETL) tools to automate the data aggregation, cleansing, and standardizing.
  • Created a relational database in Power BI consisting of all financial data, cost center details, and general ledger account codes.
  • Automated financial reporting by downloading financial data directly from the database into reports including, actual vs. budget vs. forecast profit and loss statement for the consolidated Company, the divisions, and the product lines.
  • Incorporated foreign exchange rates into the model by translating several million rows of financial data at the transaction level, which allowed for comparisons across time periods to be restated on a constant currency basis (the Company had foreign entities and each entity transacted in several currencies).
  • Structured the model to serve as a financial ERP system, allowing the Company to view its profit and loss statements across historical time periods for all divisions and product lines.

The Results

By overhauling the budgeting process and creating an automated financial reporting tool, Accordion enabled the Company to go through eight revisions of the budget in one week as opposed to one revision round that took two weeks with the previous model.

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10  Budget case studies

Before the end-of-session quiz check what you’ve learned about budgeting.

Activity 7  Two monthly budgets

Draw up two monthly budgets for an 18-year-old who’s still at school but who has a part-time job.

  • Draw up the budgets for the months of December and January and identify whether there’s a surplus of income over expenditure or an excess of expenditure over income.
  • Explain the differences between the two months.
  • What should be done to manage these variances in monthly budgets?

January budget

December is clearly a month that sees more income generated and more spending too than in November.

This is to be expected. Schools are closed for the Christmas and New Year holiday for part of the month, and there’s an extra demand for labour because of the season. There’s greater potential to earn income from part-time employment. Income might also come in if Christmas presents are given in the form of cash from relatives.

On the other hand spending is likely to be higher too. You might buy Christmas presents and then there’s the costs of socialising during the festive season.

But despite these additional costs there’s still a surplus of income over expenditure for the month – caused mainly by the high part-time earnings during the holiday period.

The different outcomes for December and January (an excess of income over spending in December and the reverse in January) makes it clear that finances should be managed with a longer time frame in mind than just a single month.

Clearly the excess of income in December can be put into a savings account and then these funds can be used to subsidise those months where there’s a shortfall of income relative to spending.

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Case Study A Budget Worksheet

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Modular Construction for Financial Viability: The Norwalk Project Case Study

Konstatin Daskalov, VP of US operations, Stack Modular

by Konstatin Daskalov, VP of US Operations, Stack Modular

In April 2023, Primestor, a real estate owner, and developer, along with their General Contractor, approached Stack Modular to evaluate their project, named “the Walk.” This multi-family residential complex is situated in Norwalk, California, and comprises two buildings with a combined footprint of 139,150 sq. ft. The development includes 58 dedicated affordable housing units and is slated to be the largest residential modular construction project in North America to date.

The initial on-site construction pricing provided to Primestor exceeded their budget by 25%, making the project financially unfeasible. Primestor enlisted Stack to assess the original project design and explore the benefits of Stack’s modular construction approach.

Stack’s Design team conducted a comprehensive review and Modular Design Analysis (MDA) of the project. They determined that a complete redesign for modular construction was necessary and recommended engaging Assemblage-Works Inc (AWI), specifically Michael Mathews, for the modular redesign.

Stack Modular

Stack Modular provided preliminary modular pricing, proving to be significantly more cost-effective than the initial on-site construction estimate. Additionally, they presented a detailed Scope Delineation Matrix for the original General Contractor. Despite this, the updated estimate from the original project’s General Contractor remained higher than Primestor’s target budget. Primestor then sought new competitive bids for a general contractor and selected Bernards Construction based on their modular experience and collaborative approach.

Recognizing the need for an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach, Stack Modular organized a 3-day Design Charette in August 2023, fostering collaboration among AWI Architects, Primestor, and Bernards. The combined team of consultants and engineers collaborated in an open forum discussion, preserving the original design intent, and addressing factors like Unit Mix, Retail spaces, open space, and entitlement restrictions. After multiple iterations, a new concept design was finalized in June 2023.

Project Snapshot

Owner: Primestor Type: Multi-family residential Modules: 516 Buildings: 2 New Housing Units: 373 Floors: 7 / 5 Total Gross Area: 681,129 sq.ft. Modular Gross Area: 356,129 sq.ft

Norwalk---From-NE-Corner_1200x664

The IPD collaborative approach resulted in an additional 20% reduction in pricing for both on-site and modular components, making the Norwalk project financially viable. Since then, all team members have been actively engaged in pre-construction efforts.

Stack Modular is set to build a full 1BR / 2 Module Unit for review by the end of May 2024. This will allow Primestor and the development team to assess the modular structure, MEP systems, and finishes, providing a valuable tool to identify any issues before Stack proceeds with full fabrication in October 2024.

The Norwalk project serves as a prime example of how Off-site Modular Construction, in collaboration with Architects, Consultants/Engineers, General Contractors (GC), and Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Fire Protection (MEP/FP) Subcontractors, can make projects financially feasible by closely working with the Owner/Developer under an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach.

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Hamas’ Attack on Israel – an “Improvised Everything” Case Study

By David G. Smith, Ph.D. and Allan O. Steinhardt, Ph.D.

            During the Cold War and afterwards, some Pentagon strategists used to contemplate how much destruction ten men could do, as a barometer for how dangerous the world was becoming. The sages chose ten men because that was roughly the size of the core group of radicals behind the Russia Revolution.

            Overthrowing a nation demonstrates an impressive amount of capability, but Pentagon analysts liked to think in terms of military, destructive capability. Since 2000, events have illustrated the power easily wielded by a small group has grown significantly. 9/11 showed how much devastation a group of 19 terrorists, albeit with offshore support, could wreak. Since then, mass killings have proliferated. The power of automatic weaponry is such that just one gunman, firing multiple automatic weapons, could kill 60 individuals and wound 413 in the Las Vegas shootings in 2021.

            The rising destruction able to be wreaked by a small group of people has been abetted by another trend – the rising use of commercial technologies for destructive purposes. Writing from 2008 to 2015, Dr. Allan Steinhardt and I introduced the concept of “improvised everything,” a way to alert readers to the proliferation of military capability available from leveraging commercial products and technology. [1]   We called the concept “Improvised Everything” as a way of warning that the phenomenon extended far beyond just the development of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which were a major focus at the time. Using both current events and select historical examples, we showed that non-state actors, terrorists, and rogue states could assemble an impressive range of at least rudimentary military capabilities by leveraging commercial technology. In fact, while sometimes primitive, capabilities could be developed in every major military branch of service – army, air force, and navy. Planning, training, tactics, intelligence and logistics capabilities could be developed or aided as well. These improvised capabilities often do not stand alone, but are combined with widely available military technologies such as automatic weapons, explosives, and mortars to create a dangerous new threat environment. This military equipment is often available from rogue states or the black market.

There are a number of global trends that are making improvised everything (IE) an increasing threat. Consider the following two trends: 

(i) The global commercial R&D budget in 2022 was $2.5 Trillion, 2.5% of the global GDP last year ($105T). In 1960, US defense-related R&D represented 36% of global R&D. [2] Today, g lobal research expenditure is roughly 30 times US DoD R&D (roughly $80B DoD spending on R&D and R&D plant in 2022). [3]   Global commercial R&D is almost the proverbial dog wagging the US defense R&D tail.

(ii) The intersection of commercial and military technology is growing, increasing the percentage of global R&D that is relevant for defense. 

A grim illustration of the destructive capabilities able to be created from commercial technology is the October 7 attack on Israel.

Hamas’ October 7 Attack on Israel

Recently, and tragically, a case study has unfolded illustrating this modern variant of warfare: Hamas’ attack on Israel. While Hamas certainly used conventional military capabilities in the attack, it was also able to innovate and greatly undercut traditional military development cycle times by using commercial technologies.

On October 7, Hamas launched a horrific attack across the Israeli border. The attack contradicted Hamas’ earlier claims that it did not deliberately target civilians. [4] A key part of this attack was based on commercial technology – commercially available drones, pickup trucks, bulldozers, motorcycles, and ATVs – or improvised technology like homemade rockets, combined with widely available military munitions, explosives, and firearms. 

Improvised Army                                                                                                                                 

            In 2015, we highlighted the ability of non-traditional militaries to rapidly muster volunteers or crowds using conventional means such as mobile phones, text messages, blogs or social media. When those are not available, asymmetric adversaries can resort to improvised communications or preset rules (improvised CONOPS) like “gather every night at the town square” or “grab a gun and head towards the shooting.” This points back to conflicts in the past, such as the French Revolution, where planning and recruiting took place by word of mouth in taverns that royal agents could not penetrate. Communications between groups can also leverage other simple, low bandwidth means – such as motorcycle or bicycle messengers. During the American Revolution, some American spies even communicated through how they hung up their laundry (improvised semaphores). [5]  

In 2023, Hamas added a new dimension of “Improvised Airborne” to the “Improvised Army” – using soldiers with hang gliders and motorized power gliders to sail over the border wall. By flying “low and slow” they were difficult to counter. [6] They also added “improvised combat engineers,” with Hamas using tractors and bulldozers to expand breaches in the Gaza border fence.

            A key element of 2015’s “Improvised Army” was “Improvised artillery.”  In 2015, we commented how non-state groups around Israel were stockpiling rockets, some crudely fashioned from lampposts, sometimes with parts transported by self-guided donkeys. One Israeli official grumbled, “[T]he only way to knock out the threat would be to kill every donkey in Lebanon.” [7] In 2023, the similar tactics were also used, with lamppost bodies and plumbing pipe used as launching tubes or rocket bodies. Recent high-rise construction in Gaza gave the terrorists plenty of access to material, and if an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building, it was promptly scavenged for electronics and plumbing parts. An Israeli study in 2021 remarked of Hamas, “ They collect unexploded Israeli ordnance for the explosives contained within, recycle streetlight poles or war detritus from the deserted Israeli communities in Gaza for launch tubes, and make projectile tubes from plumbing pipes. The destruction of several hi-rise buildings in May 2021 left much more wiring, pipes, rebar, cement, and metal available for ‘recycling.’” The report also quoted Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar boasting in 2019, “[We have] enough [plumbing pipes] to manufacture rockets for the coming 10 years.” [8]

To these improvised devices are added traditional rockets, smuggled into Gaza, and mortars, widely available on the black market. Hybrid warfare is becoming a very destructive, combining strictly military technologies with widely available commercial ones. Hamas has also benefitted from support and clandestine allies, including possibly Iran. Without that support, its improvised forces would not be as effective. [9]

“Improvised Everything” ordnance can be difficult to recognize. In “classic” warfare, the presence of a weapon is easily discerned by its unique signatures. Indeed, it is easy to differentiate an Abrams tank from a Vladimir tank. Improvised weapons, assembled as they are from a global supply chain, have limited ‘fingerprints’, i.e., no “smoking gun” signature to identify the device’s intent). In some cases the material weaponized are plumbing pipes or commercial or even toy drones.

Improvised Air Force                                              

            Non-state actors (as well as states such as Russia and Ukraine) are weaponizing drones (UAVs). Hamas used commercially-produced quadcopter drones armed with grenades to destroy surveillance towers, blinding Israeli intelligence to details about the initial attack.  Other weaponized drones were also used to crash into targets. While rockets are impressive, slower moving drones are easier to guide with GPS, have a smaller effective radar cross-section, and can become a precision weapon – Russia and Ukraine have both used drones in this way, as well as the Houthi rebels in Yemen. [10]   According to an Israeli defense report from 2021, “ Drones can fly low to avoid radar, fly a complex route to a target, and can be used swarm-like with other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and cruise missiles to overwhelm defenses to hit a strategic target, as seen in the Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil facility. The attack in September 2019 shut down 50 percent of the Saudi oil industry.” [11]

            In World War II, dive bombers and level attack aircraft were used to attack command and communications. The planes had to be large to carry a pilot and non-precision ordnance and armor to give the crew some chance of surviving. Today, small, light miniature drones can carry out those attacks, as did the quadcopters that took out the communications for Israel’s surveillance system. And they can be flown right on top of surveillance cameras or communications systems to drop small, but effective munitions. They can be challenging to spot optically, hard to detect on radar, and difficult to counter.  As we said back in 2015, “Small is the poor man’s stealth.” [12]           

Improvised Navy

            The attack on the USS Cole in 2000 had shown the devastating capability of rubber dinghies packed with explosives. Iran is a state actor who has built a significant naval capability in part through commercial speedboats. In 2014, five Hamas terrorists, armed with rifles, grenades, explosives, and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), attempted to infiltrate Israel through a beach near Zikim, 5 km north of Gaza. They donned scuba gear and swam to the beach. In 2021, divers were stopped again, and terrorists were caught trying to launch an improvised submarine. In 2023, Hamas attempted to attack Israel with unmanned speedboats packed with explosives and through swimmers infiltrating over the beaches. Hamas is also suspected of using commercial fishing boats to move underwater weapons caches closer to shore where swimmers and divers could recover it. Hamas’s “naval” capabilities are still rudimentary, but they try to exploit the vulnerability of Israel to from-the-sea attack. Hamas is believed to now own several models of the autonomous submarine that was captured in 2021. [13]

Improvised C4I, Counterintelligence and Cyber

            One new capability that we did not highlight in 2015 is improvised jamming. With the increasing dependence of modern armies on anytime, anywhere communications for rapid, flexible operations, there is a strong reliance on orders, especially in a new conflict situation. Hamas has used large server farms to try to jam Israeli communications on the southern border, and to keep Israeli outposts from reporting on the initial swarm attack across the border, in addition to trying to disrupt the tower’s communications with physical attacks.

            In the category of expanding Improvised Everything, we included satellite imagery and cyber capabilities. Cyber capabilities are easy to generate through training computer savvy youth or simply offering to pay hackers to work on your behalf.  There are reports that Hamas has used its cyber capabilities to target Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system with its cyber capabilities. With Iranian help, Hamas has also been improving its defensive cyber, trying to keep Israel from surveilling its planning. [14]  In the 1970s, various terrorist groups from around the world like the IRA and the PLO became “strange bedfellows,” collaborating on developing small bombs and terror attacks. Today various shady entities are exchanging cyberattack expertise. [15]  

A hallmark of Hamas’ recent assault is the targeting of Israeli intelligence capabilities. As mentioned, quadcopter drones dropped grenades repeatedly on Israeli surveillance cameras along the border. Snipers also took out surveillance cameras. Hamas also gathered intelligence on the location of Israeli server farms supporting the border cameras and other border intelligence. These locations were targeted for attack and destruction. 

Before Hamas drones were used to target Israeli communication towers and surveillance equipment, they were apparently used to fly a large number of surveys over southern Israel.  Captured maps indicated that the drones may have flown as low as 150 feet. Hamas attackers also had commercial satellite photographs of key locations and targets. [16]

Swarm techniques

            Another aspect of this new improvised warfare is the adoption of swarm techniques, which attempt to mimic emergent behaviors of complex adaptive systems to overwhelm defenses. Hamas uses swarms to try to increase the capability of its improvised army, navy, and air force. The US military has long been studying the adversarial use of swarm techniques.  In the 2005 war in Lebanon, Hezbollah fired antitank weapons en masse in salvos, hoping to defeat the active protection systems of Israeli tanks. In 2023, salvos of Hamas rockets exploited swarm techniques to try and overcome Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. Some believe that the rocket attack – over 5000 rockets were fired over a short time – was designed to distract Israeli attention from the breaching of the southern border.

The overland attack on Israel, with explosives blowing holes in the border fence to enable commandos on motorcycles and foot soldiers to enter, could also be thought of a swarm attack.  The breaches were later widened by bulldozers to allow the entrance of larger vehicles. Motorcycles and pickup trucks were used to add speed to the swarm. 

            The diabolical use that many types of commercial technology are being put to reminds us of the benefits of close cooperation between cutting edge scientists and engineers familiar with commercial technology and the military. In Britain during World War II, corvettes – basically small destroyer escorts – were rapidly fielded because the fundamental design was not based on the military requirements process, but specs for commercial whaling vessels (even in wartime it was recognized using the traditional military procurement route would be too slow to meet the U-Boat challenge). [17] Again, during World War II, scientists also worked to rapidly develop and deploy jamming countermeasures to defeat German precision bombs – weapons that could have otherwise stopped the D-Day invasion. [18] During the 1970s, the then Director of Defense Research & Engineering, DDR&E, Johnny Foster (1965-1973), and DoD innovator Don Srull were able to give early UAV development a vital push because of their experience designing and flying powered model aircraft. Srull, who became Deputy Assistant Director of Defense (Systems Analysis), went on to help develop the Marine Corps’ Dragonfly UAV, one of the first useful small UAVs – because of his expertise in a niche commercial technology, rather than a military one. Foster continued the advocacy for UAVs as a member and later chair of the Defense Science Board. [19] One of us (Smith) remembers scientists studying Coca-Cola bottling techniques for insights into how an armored vehicle guns might be loaded more rapidly and reliably. For years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has fostered cooperation between science and technology and the military to achieve paradigm-shifting military breakthroughs. So has the CIA’s Office of Weapons and Development, and later, In-Q-Tel, designed specifically to leverage commercial IT developments.  In recent years, the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Rapid Reaction Technology Office has also pushed rapid capability development and fielding.

            Monitoring commercial developments to understand their military implications is also important and not a new idea. In the 19 th century, the British designed their navy to be larger than any other two nation’s navies. Given this advantage, they realized that what they had most to fear was a technological breakthrough that would make some of their navy obsolete. British intelligence had a project to monitor militarily-relevant technology development. Reportedly, this was highly effective, although they missed the development of motors to power undersea submarines (the U-Boat threat).  In the 2000s, the National Research Council’s Technology Insight, Guage, Evaluate and Respond (TIGER) committee monitored technology developments for the military and intelligence community.  Now, more than ever, military planners need to be aware of both the capabilities and the implications of emerging technology. 

In today’s world, see for example the list of controlled technology in the controlled munitions list, 22 CFR Parts 120-130 ( www.ecfr.gov ) . Items 11-14 have very strong commercial and defense overlap. Biology, computers, sensors, all have broad application in commercial markets. As recently as the year 2000 the controlled munitions list had no breakdown of chemical compositions, biologics, or laser sensors and transmitters. We estimate the commercial/defense overlap has grown from 3% of commercial sectors to 30% of commercial sectors. This is in large part due to the internet of things as well as 3D printing. It follows that  dual use technology, once a rare exception, is becoming increasingly the norm.

            By leveraging commercial technology, then, advanced capabilities can be developed by terrorists and non-state actors. An improvised military may never have sufficient capability to stand up to a modern one. But as the recent Hamas incursion into Israel has shown, it can have the capability to do tremendous damage, especially to civilians. The amount of destruction a relatively small group of people can do, some Pentagon strategists’ litmus test for the security of the world, has increased again.

            In a sense, “Improvised Everything” is a reflection of today’s world of rapid change, which Peter Vaill has called “permanent white water.” [20] It is vital that the U.S. and other Western states be nimble at their own improvisation, and to thoroughly understand the implications of new commercial technologies. Fanatics, terrorists, hate groups, and non-state actors will continue to leverage commercial technology. Even nation states will. Regrettably, the world situation has not improved since we wrote in 2015 – in fact, it has gotten worse.  The words of W. B. Yeats, describing modernity’s fanaticism and loss of innocence, are still regrettably apropos in the world of “Improvised Everything:”

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

– W.B. Yeats, 1921 [21]

[1] D. Smith & A. Steinhardt, “The Blood Dimmed Tide: Technology and the Dangerous New “Improvised Everything” International Security Environment ,” Small Wars Journal , December 12, 2015. The Blood-Dimmed Tide: Technology and the Dangerous New “Improvised Everything” International Security Environment | Small Wars Journal . A. Steinhardt, D. G. Smith.  “Improvised Everything:  Taking a Page from the Adversary’s Playbook.” Defense News , August 12, 2013. D. Smith and A. Steinhardt, “‘Improvised Everything’ Challenges Acquisition,” Defense News , lead editorial, May 18, 2009 (reprinted at Federal Times.com under different title). [c4ISR Journal]. We gratefully acknowledge the important role of Dr. Joseph Mancusi to the early development of the Improvised Everything concept. 

[2] Congressional Research Service, “The Global Research and Development Landscape and Implications for the Department of Defense,” updated June 28, 2021, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45403 .

[3] For DoD statistic, see NSF publication Federal R&D Spending, by Budget Function, 2021-2023, https://ncses.nsf.gov/data-collections/federal-budget-function/2023#data

[4] Devorah Margolin, “A Major Pivot in Hamas Strategy,” War on the Rocks, October 16, 2023, https://warontherocks.com/2023/10/a-major-pivot-in-hamas-strategy/ .

[5] Smith and Steinhardt, “The Blood-Dimmed Tide.” See “The Spy Who Hung Out Her Laundry,” History Daily website, July 25, 2019, https://historydaily.org/the-spy-who-hung-her-laundry/7 .

[6] Vincent Carchidi, Middle East Institute, “The October 7 Hamas Attack: An Israeli overreliance on Technology?” October 23, 2023, https://www.mei.edu/publications/october-7-hamas-attack-israeli-ove

rreliance-technology

[7] Karby Leggett, “Key Issue in Lebanon Fighting:  How to Stop Hezbollah Rockets,”  Wall Street Journal , July 17, 2006.  Karby Leggett and Jay Solomon, “Why Hezbollah is Proving So Tough on the Battlefield,”  Wall Street Journal , August 3, 2006.

[8] Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jerusalem Report 2021, “Hamas’ Advanced Weaponry: Rockets, Artillery, Drones, Cyber”

[9] Jerusalem Report 2021, “Hamas’ Advanced Weaponry”

[10] Oded Yaron, “Hamas Drone Assault Surprised Israel, Using Russia Ukraine War Tactics,“ Ha’aretz , October 9, 2023, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-10-09/ty-article/.premium/hamas-drone-assault-surprised-israel-using-russia-ukraine-war-tactics/0000018b-155d-d2fc-a59f-d55d05eb0000?v=1699850992255 For an account downplaying the effectiveness of Hamas’ drones, see WIRED, “The Dangerous Mystery of Hamas’ Missing “Suicide Drones,” October 21, 2023, https://www.wired.com/story/hamas-drones-israel-war/ . David Ingram, “How Yemen’s Houthi Rebels have leveraged cheap drones into military success for years,” MSN.com How Yemen’s Houthi rebels have leveraged cheap drones into military success for years (msn.com)

[11] Jerusalem Report 2021, “Hamas’ Advanced Weaponry”

[12] Smith and Steinhardt, “The Blood-Dimmed Tide.”

[13] Jerusalem Report 2021, “Hamas Advanced Weaponry,” Joby Warrick, “Observers fear that Hamas weapon reserves may contain more surprises,” Washington Post, October 20, 2023, p. A1. Jerusalem Report, 2021.

[14] Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), “Hamas’ October 7 Attack: The Tactics, Targets, and Strategies of Terrorists,” November 7, 2023.

[15] R.A. Oppenheimer, The IRA: The Bombs and the Bullets, A History of Deadly Ingenuity (Newbridge: Irish Academic Press, 2008)

[16] Shira Rubin and Joby Warrick, “Hamas envisioned deeper attacks, aiming to provoke an Israeli war,” Washington Post, November 12, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/12/hamas-planning-terror-gaza-israel/

[17] “Corvette,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvette

[18] Martin J. Bollinger, Warriors and Wizards: The Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Glide Bobs of the Third Reich (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2010)

[19] Don Srull, personal communication, c. 2010. See also Diane Tedeschi, “From Models to Military Drones, Don Srull has built them all,” Smithsonian , December 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/modelers-tale-don-srull-interview-model-airplanes-180957297/ . Despite the headline, the article does not actually discuss Srull’s military drone work. Stephen J. Balut, et. al., Institute for Defense Analyses, IDA 2004 Cost Research Symposium , p. 14.

[20] Peter Vaill, Managing as a performing art: New ideas for a world of chaotic change . (San Franscico: Jossey-Bass, 1989). Peter B. Vaill, Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996), pp. 1-21.

[21] William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming,” The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats (1989), https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming

About the Author(s)

David G. Smith has worked for 25 years as a consultant supporting Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and logistics technology clients. He has a doctorate in American History from Penn State University, a Master’s of Science in Science, Technology and Society from Virginia Tech, and a certificate in Terrorism Studies from the University of St. Andrews. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in American Government and a Master’s in History from the University of Virginia.

Allan O. Steinhardt is the chief scientist for AEye, Inc. He has a doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder, has published over 200 articles in academic and defense strategy journals, and co-authored a book on adaptive radar. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his contributions to radar and radar processing.

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  18. Automating the Budgeting Processes

    With the latest acquisition, the model proved untenable as it needed 40 minutes to open and 30 minutes for a recalculation. Accordion was engaged to streamline the budgeting process and develop a business intelligence solution to reduce the budget preparation lead time.

  19. 10 Budget case studies

    Allow about 30 minutes. Draw up two monthly budgets for an 18-year-old who's still at school but who has a part-time job. Draw up the budgets for the months of December and January and identify whether there's a surplus of income over expenditure or an excess of expenditure over income. Explain the differences between the two months.

  20. Case Study Method: A Step-by-Step Guide for Business Researchers

    Yin (1994) defines case study as an empirical research activity that, by using versatile empirical material gathered in several different ways, examines a specific present-day event or action in a bounded environment. Case study objective is to do intensive research on a specific case, such as individual, group, institute, or community.

  21. Case Study A Budget Worksheet

    Monthly Budget Worksheet—Lena and Jenny (Case Study 1) Monthly Budget Worksheet—Ellen (Case Study 2) Monthly Budget Worksheet—John (Case Study 3) Monthly Budget Worksheet—Richard (Case Study 4) Monthly Budget Worksheet—Elizabeth (Case Study 5) We teach, learn, lead and serve, connecting people with the University of Wisconsin, and ...

  22. (PDF) Water Budget Development for SGMA Compliance, Case Study: Ukiah

    Water Budget Development for SGMA Compliance, Case Study: Ukiah V alley GW Basin In the years from 2011 to 2015 there is a subtle decline in storage, but this could be attributed to

  23. Community Participation in Budget Development: A Case Study of ...

    This study examines the circumstances under which a large urban school system opens the budget development process to the input of citizens groups and the difficulties involved in this effort. The scope of the study is limited to the analysis of the 1977 Budget Task Force (BTF) of the Philadelphia School District and observations of the Philadelphia Board of Education relating to citizen ...

  24. The Norwalk Multifamily Modular Project Case Study

    The development includes 58 dedicated affordable housing units and will be the largest residential modular construction project in North America to date. ... The Norwalk Project Case Study. by Konstatin Daskalov, VP of US Operations, Stack Modular ... The initial on-site construction pricing provided to Primestor exceeded their budget by 25% ...

  25. Case Study: Power Hop Improvement by Rear Mount Redesign

    Case Study: Power Hop Improvement by Rear Mount Redesign ... The vehicle under study has a constrain related to engine package that was considered for solution development. The study conclusion allows to comprehend the loads sensitivity against the rear mount rubber stiffness variation. The current scenario and proposed scenario were both ...

  26. Hamas' Attack on Israel

    Recently, and tragically, a case study has unfolded illustrating this modern variant of warfare: Hamas' attack on Israel. While Hamas certainly used conventional military capabilities in the attack, it was also able to innovate and greatly undercut traditional military development cycle times by using commercial technologies. On October 7, Hamas launched a horrific attack across the Israeli ...

  27. Screening and eradication of Helicobacter pylori to prevent gastric

    We did a population-based study with residents aged 20-60 years from 454 tribes across 40 indigenous townships. H pylori infection was documented via the 13 C-urea breath test (Hwang's Pharmaceutical, Yunlin, Taiwan). When a participant tested positive for H pylori infection (constituting an index case), family members were invited to attend the screening service.