Proteus Project Fast Facts

Project/Contract Name
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) — Project Proteus

Dollar Amount of Contract
$1.25 million (Futures Group/Deloitte share)

Project Duration
December 1998 — September 2001. Each phase of this work was completed on time.

POC and Telephone Number
COTR was Ms. Pamela Krause (703–808–0778)

Project Description
This project was run under two separate contracting mechanisms. The first year was a subcontract to The Futures Group from TASC, Inc. The second and third years of Project Proteus were under a direct contract between the NRO and Deloitte (using Deloitte’s MOBIS contract). Project Proteus was a scenario-based strategic planning project. Charles Thomas, a founding Member of TFSG, was the project manager and oversaw the activities of his own company’s staff and the project staff of three other firms, plus a client Core Team of twelve military and civilian personnel.

Objectives
1.  Understand the operating environment and the intelligence needs of the United States to and beyond 2020
2. Develop a strategic framework that will foster revolutionary thinking and technological innovations
3. Design a dynamic strategy process that is inclusive of partners, customers, users, and potential nontraditional stakeholders

Methodology
Scenarios were developed to embed key mission drivers in larger forces for change. The intelligence community selected and developed six scenarios to capture the range of threats and opportunities of the national security environment in 2020. These included some highly unusual threats, actors, and problem sets. A total of six workshops (some classified, some open) were run. Participants included civilian and military from the NRO and its customer agencies, and business and academic leaders.

Deliverables
·   Strategic insights into 2020 (the strategic insights have been published in a book “Proteus: Insights from 2020”)
·   Strategic plan for the NRO and NRO’s Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate
·   Decision gaming framework
·   Analytic technique for technology investment decision-making

Results
The Project Proteus Team was awarded the NRO Pioneering Spirit Team Award in recognition of risk-taking, intuition, and perseverance in support of the Technology Enterprise.