Cost-Benefit Analysis Applied to Example Proposals for Army Training and Education Research

摘要

The report was based on outcomes from the Army Science of Learning Workshop' sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) at the request of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). The present report took findings from the workshop and derived a research and development (R&D) program. The elements of the current analysis were 21 proposed R&D efforts derived from concepts discussed in the workshop. Total costs were calculated in two ways: (1) implementation and other costs were summed to estimate the first-year start-up (Y1) costs; and (2) long- term costs were calculated by adding maintenance to Y1 estimates, assuming a five-year time frame. The benefit of a proposed R&D effort was conceived as analogous to expected value that is, an estimate of the work's operational impact multiplied by the probability of successfully executing the work. These data were used to derive three types of proposal 'packages': (1) an optimal package that maximizes benefit and minimizes costs, (2) a package having a fixed budget that maximizes total benefit, and (3) a package for a stated level of benefit that minimizes costs. The analyses provided sensible alternative plans for a TRADOC R&D program.