James Christman: Senior Project Engineer, Ocean Observing

Tel: (202) 787-1602
Email: jchristman@oceanleadership.org

Jim Christman is the Project Engineer/Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative for the Coastal/Global Scale Node (CGSN) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the Ocean Observing Initiative project. He is responsible for project (cost, schedule, technical) management of the $97M contract and for the quality of hardware, software and communications systems deployed for the CGSN.

Mr. Christman came to JOI from NOAA in September 2007. From 1997 to 2007, he served as Deputy Program Manager and Quality Assurance Manager on the nearly $1B integrated Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). From 1992 to 1997, he contributed to the acquisition and deployment of NOAA’s highly successful $770M WSR 88D Doppler Radar program. Prior to 1992, Mr. Christman led the acquisition of the Sparrow air-to-air missile system for the Navy, and other major DoD systems and equipment.

Mr. Christman has developed program performance measures for the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). He has effectively managed performance-based contracts and recently led a group of technical specialists in evaluation of contractor performance to Quality Assurance Surveillance Plans. He has coordinated relocations of IT systems. He was alternate chairman of the AWIPS Change Control Board and has written Exhibit 300 documents at OMB guidance. He participated in managing a system with 4.5 million source lines of code and managed major software builds from requirements analysis to systems integration and test through deployment. He led a Cost and Past Performance Team during evaluation of the ten-year, $300M, AWIPS performance-based O&M contract. He was the AWIPS factory-acceptance-test quality manager, and performed site acceptance tests of over 40, multi-million-dollar, IT (hardware, software and telecommunication) systems.

Mr. Christman has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland. He recently completed George Washington University’s Masters Certificate program in Project Management. He is a certified Level 3 COTR, a certified ISO 9001 lead auditor and a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality.

Mr. Christman and his wife Carol are residents of Rockville, MD. They enjoy spending free time at their vacation cottage on Lake James in Northern Indiana.