Case Study: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieves reliable, defensible management reserve estimates with Deltek Acumen Risk

Driving Reliability and Confidence for Management Reserve with Deltek Acumen Risk

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a U.S. national security R&D lab, was tasked with managing a $1B+ life‑extension program but lacked recent experience at that scale and relied on outdated, manual estimation and planning methods. Assessing prior cost and schedule estimates was time‑consuming and management reserve was set by rules of thumb rather than quantitative analysis, undermining confidence and defensibility.

LLNL implemented an enterprise license of the Deltek Acumen Suite (Fuse, Risk, 360) with on‑site consulting to align people, processes and tools. Teams now use Fuse for automated schedule quality checks and comparisons, and Acumen Risk to quantify management reserve and model potential scope or risk impacts. The result: streamlined reviews, more rigorous and defensible estimates, consistent schedule quality, and increased customer confidence in proposals and reserve calculations.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

T. Horrillo

Program Manager