A murder board, also known as a "scrub-down",
is a committee of questioners set up to critically review a proposal and/or help someone prepare for a difficult
oral examination.
The term originated in the
U.S. military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
, specifically from
the Pentagon,
but has spread to
academic and government appointment contexts.
NASA contends the murder board was created by
Hans Mark, Director of
Ames Research Center from 1969 to 1977, derived from the earlier concept of the
tiger team.
In highly risk-averse, technical endeavors where extreme efforts are taken to prevent mistakes (e.g. satellite operations), murder boards are used to aggressively review, without constraint or pleasantries, a situation's problem, assumptions, constraints, mitigations, and the proposed solution. The board's goal is to kill the well-prepared proposal on technical merit; holding back even the least suspicion of a problem is not tolerated. Such argumentative murder boards consist of many subject matter experts of the specific system under review and of all interfacing systems.
In
project management, a murder board is a process where a committee asks questions from project representatives as part of the project selection process.
In
U.S. politics
The politics of the United States function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic and presidential system, with three distinct branches that Separation of powers, share powers. These are: the United States Congress, U.S. Congre ...
, murder boards are used in preparing candidates for
debates and
presidential
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
appointees for
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
confirmation hearings.
On April 20, 2010 representative
Mary Jo Kilroy
Mary Jo Kilroy (born April 30, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2009 until 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party from Ohio. She was defeated in her November 2, 2010 re-election ...
asked former Lehman Brothers CEO
Dick Fuld if he had set up a murder board to prepare for his testimony before the
House Financial Services Committee concerning the
2008 Lehman Brothers failure. Fuld expressed confusion at the expression, apparently unfamiliar with the term. Fuld indicated that he had not set up a murder board after
Barney Frank explained what it meant.
See also
*
Red team
*
Dutch uncle
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murder Board
Military terminology
Terminology of the United States Congress
United States presidential elections terminology