An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Building and Fire Research Laboratory Fiscal Year 2010 (2010) / Chapter Skim
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7 Overarching Issues
7 Overarching Issues
Pages 41-46
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From page 41... ...
However, since the review 2 years ago, the OAE has been successful in filling four vacant positions with well-qualified individuals through extensive informational and recruiting activities. Since the primary assets for OAE's activities are the number and caliber of its staff, supported by adequate computational tools and informational access, this group has sustained a high degree of technical merit, given its recent hires and the ongoing training of existing staff.
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From page 42... ...
The standards prepared by the OAE staff typically are of a decision-making procedure or process that is intended to help potential users make their own evaluations, and state-of-the-art methodologies are typically employed as long as they can be set up in a user-friendly manner. An added step that should be implemented in the future, now that a number of these evaluation standards have been in place for a number of years, is to compare actual performance and outcomes with those estimated using these methodological evaluation standards.
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From page 43... ...
The BFRL also maintains active participation with standards development organizations such as the ASTM, the ISO, and the National Fire Protection Association, where laboratory staff serves on committees that develop new standards for use in the construction industry and also leads the measurement science efforts to identify needs for potential upcoming standards. The BFRL balances the short-term development of new standards for use in prescriptive design with the longer-term goal of providing a good basis for the future development of performance-based codes and standards.
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From page 44... ...
Further, the BFRL has been doing outstanding work in the field of fire science for fires in the wildland-urban interface. Through partnerships with various fire protection organizations such as NFPA, the National Association of State Fire Marshals, and other laboratories, the BFRL has created test equipment to duplicate burning brands that often spread wildfires in urbanized areas.
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From page 45... ...
To the extent that certain programs are strongly dependent on the capabilities and leadership of a single individual, it is imperative to develop a plan to identify new managers, either from within the existing laboratory staff or through active outside recruitment. BFRL management should consider developing a formal succession planning program for technical staff in key management areas.
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From page 46... ...
The staff should continue to manage and prioritize projects using this tool. The staff should also refine the metrics of the tool based on experience with project outcomes and do postmortem analyses of projects to learn from the use of the process.
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