proactive!aerospace! defense! program!management:!

!Therein lies the fatal

flaw in reactive program management:

by the time an issue manifests, it is already too late. One can only hope that the related

cost and schedule overruns won’t reach

catastrophic proportions.

PROACTIVE!AEROSPACE!&!DEFENSE!!PROGRAM!MANAGEMENT:!

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PROACTIVE!AEROSPACE!&!DEFENSE!PROGRAM!MANAGEMENT!

2!page!

It!always!starts!the!same.!

A risk crops up, threatening a major disruption to the program. Scrambling, Program Managers pull together the right experts to troubleshoot the issue. The team explores exhaustive what-if scenarios, putting in super-human effort. A change plan is drawn up, in an attempt to take all considerations into account, and distributed to all program stakeholders. Work is re-prioritized. Adjustments are made. The change is incorporated.

And, unfortunately, it's not enough.

Today's programs gain incredible organizational momentum from start to finish. Countless projects run concurrently and independently. Departments ranging from procurement to service to quality and more are heavily involved, diversifying the types of participating stakeholders. This occurs in an environment where suppliers with system responsibilities are globally dispersed. Once the program is started, it is incredibly challenging to make any changes, no matter how brilliant the plan or how much effort is invested.

Therein lies the fatal flaw in reactive program management: by the time an issue or risk manifests, it is already too late. One can only hope that the related costs and schedule overruns won’t reach catastrophic proportions.

So how do you prevent such issues?

The answer lies in a shift from reactive to proactive program management. Program Managers must identify potential risks, issues and opportunities (RIO) before they fully manifest. They must facilitate and coordinate cross-disciplinary, multi-organization collaborative efforts

around the globe. Every company wants to be proactive. Doing so, however, is far easier said than done.

In modern product development, technology has come to play a prominent role. Recent advancements provide innovative new ways for various stakeholders to do their jobs more quickly and efficiently with fewer errors. This also holds true for Program Managers.

New software applications and systems integrate multiple active program disciplines and act as a means to support the objective of each stage of the program lifecycle. Integration with the work being performed provides visibility into all of those activities, enabling Program Managers to see risks, issues and opportunities long before they threaten major disruptions or pass by. In short, they enable a shift from reactive to proactive program management.

Delving into those technologies, ultimately, is the purpose of this eBook. Here, you will find the context of program management today, the technology needs of Program Managers and a comparison of various types of software applications and systems.

For too long, Program Managers have been doomed to constantly play catch up to resolve program issues. Today, however, a proactive means of managing programs is within reach, and new technologies have an important part to play.


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3!page!

Today’s!Business!Environment!for!Programs!

Not long ago, organizations employing a reactive approach to program management flourished. Today, however, those following reactive approaches often fail. This section examines the trends in the aerospace and defense industry that are pressuring organizations to switch from reactive to proactive program management.

Dominos!in!the!Program!Budget!Squeeze!

The most notable change in the industry lies in the fact that private sector businesses and government agencies are slashing budgets. Their expectations for programs, however, haven’t changed. In an effort to buoy profits, prime contractors have ramped up outsourcing.

Now, mind you, this is not more of the same kind of outsourcing. Major systems of incredible complexity are being pushed down the supply chain. As development of such systems spreads across more organizations, integration is increasingly tricky. In parallel to that trend, many suppliers have pursued Low Cost Country Sourcing (LCCS) strategies, where they have moved technical centers to geographies with lower human capital costs. That, in turn, means development for these systems is being conducted in new technical centers at various locations around the world.

The implications of these trends for Program Managers are severe. A decade ago, program work for a prime contractor was collocated in a few relatively close sites. Today, it is spread across many suppliers in locations around the world. Identifying and acting on program risks, issues and opportunities in that environment is a monumental task for Program Managers.

Enterprise!Considerations!for!the!Program!

Obviously, the threat of an overrun doesn't just come from form, fit and function errors. Every aspect of the program carries risk. Costs must be kept in line, regardless of which supplier is involved. Manufacturing must come together per the schedule, even though production might occur on different continents, and without compromising quality standards throughout the process.

In short, Program Managers must keep their eye on every stage of the program, not just design and engineering. Given the complexities of programs, spanning suppliers and continents, that is a tall order. Nonetheless, all of it must occur without a hitch, because of tight timelines and budgets. It can’t be planned out on the assembly floor anymore, and must be organized right the first time.

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4!page!

The!Program!Manager’s!Technology!Needs!

To do their job in a proactive manner, Program Managers need new and powerful technologies. This section details the range of capabilities that deliver visibility across the program and facilitate collaboration. Once defined, these capabilities become a benchmark against which different types of technologies can be measured.

Identifying!the!Risk,!Issue!or!Opportunity!

Program Managers must identify issues before they become major disruptions by h`aving program wide capabilities, including visibility. Technologies must provide these capabilities, which include:

• Real-time access to work-in-process deliverables, including documents, bill-of-materials (BOM), design artifacts and more.

• The transposition of those deliverables against domain specific views such as project schedules, system engineering requirements, procurement contracts, production sequences and more.

• Both real-time access to deliverables and the transposition of them against domain specific views must extend outside the Program Manager’s company across the global supply chain participating in the program.

The main objective of these capabilities is to not only identify risks, issues and opportunities, but to also understand any associated implications by looking at deliverables, such as documents or design models, in various contexts, such as system engineering structures or procurement sequences.

Resolving!the!Risk,!Issue!or!Opportunity!

Once an issue is identified, Program Managers must coordinate and facilitate its resolution. Technologies must enable the resolution by providing collaboration and project management tools capabilities for the Program Manager which include:

• Designation of any combination of work-in-process deliverables and domain specific views in the context of the issue that needs to be addressed.

• Selection of any stakeholder, regardless of which supplier they represent or where they reside in the world, for an ad-hoc team to work on the issue.

• Collaboration, both structured and unstructured, amongst the ad-hoc team to work on the issue.

• Assignment of tasks and/or deliverables to members of the ad-hoc team.

• Analytics of trends in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that is integrated with program development work allows robust risk, issue and opportunity management.

Enabling the Program Manager to resolve program level risks, issues and opportunities is very much like project management, only the scope is grand in scale and the participants are spread across the globe outside their company.






5!page!

Project!or!Portfolio!Management!!Applications!and!Systems!

Project Management applications first emerged as a technology to plan and track the execution of complex sets of concurrent or sequential tasks. Portfolio Management systems arose to support the analysis and selection of candidate projects for product development. Many Portfolio Management systems include some project management capabilities.

Capabilities!Provided!

• Project and Task Management: Project organizers can define a full schedule of tasks and assign them to individuals who can review tasks and update their status until the tasks are complete. Project organizers can track and manage the progress of individual tasks and the overall project.

• Portfolio Assessments and Comparisons: This set of capabilities automates the assessment of proposed and ongoing projects against a defined set of business and technical criteria. The purpose of these assessments is to compare and contrast options for initial or continued investment.

Advantages!

The project management capabilities provided by these kinds of software offer powerful tools to define and then execute plans. By quickly understanding a project’s status, organizers can determine the implications of missed deadlines. Program Managers can leverage these capabilities to resolve program issues as they occur.

Portfolio management capabilities enable information-based decision making for critical business choices. They automate activities that, if done manually, require significant effort. Program Managers can utilize these capabilities to assess the progress of the program’s business value.

Disadvantages!

While these software applications and systems enable the resolution of program issues, their weakness lies in the lack of integration. There is no real-time access to work-in-process deliverables and no visibility into other domain specific views. That means the Program Manager’s view is often based on out-of-date data, an untrusted source. As a result, performance management is subjective and manual.

Additionally, execution plans developed with these tools frequently fail to use what was defined in the proposal phase. Consequently, much of the work from the proposal phase is duplicated, which also leads to discrepancies between what was promised and what is delivered.

Conclusion!

Project and Portfolio Management software tools represent an improvement over spreadsheets and documents to resolve program issues. However, they fall woefully short of offering the visibility that Program Managers need to identify risks and issues before they become major disruptions and are therefore incomplete solutions.






6!page!

Program!Management!Modules!!in!Enterprise!Resource!&!Planning!Systems!

Enterprise Resource and Planning (ERP) systems, traditionally used to manage financial and other back office functions such as inventory, order processing, cash and raw materials, have expanded to offer Program Management modules.


• Project and Task Management: These capabilities mirror those offered by Project or Portfolio Management Applications and Systems. Project organizers can develop, assign and track tasks. Individuals can update their status as they progress.

• Integration with other ERP Modules: ERP systems offer a wide range of modules including procurement, finance, development and more. The project and task management capabilities included above can be integrated with these other modules.

Advantages!

One advantage offered by managing programs with ERP systems lies in the integration of project management capabilities and back office functionality. Transactions can be mapped against the program as it progresses, providing real-time visibility into current financials.

A suggested advantage is the visibility that a Program Manager can gain with integration between different ERP modules. Theoretically, the breadth of the system could be stitched together, offering an integrated view of deliverables across schedules, requirements and more.

Disadvantages!

The main disadvantage of managing programs with ERP systems is the effort required to gain the visibility across the program. It requires integration between modules of the ERP system, which are frequently developed as individual software products with different data structures, schemas and objects. Integration requires Master Data Management (MDM) technology to translate and rationalize those differences, representing a significant IT undertaking.

Additionally, ERP systems lack mature capabilities to manage design and engineering deliverables and artifacts, such as system engineering requirements breakdown and allocation. As a result, visibility across the program breaks down as engineering turns to other technologies to complete their job. A solution is synchronizing with other more technically functional systems. However, such approaches only offer a lagging picture of the current state of the program, undermining the Program Manager's ability to identify issues.

More fundamentally, however, ERP systems have been built to manage transactions as opposed to non-recurring development deliverables, like CAD models, and artifacts, like system engineering requirements and this represents a completely different paradigm.

Conclusion!

Program Management modules of ERP systems offer advantages in the form of integration of back office functionality with project management capabilities. But its distinct disadvantage lies in the need to integrate its modules, representing a significant IT effort, and its shortcomings in technical tools for engineering.






7!page!

Integrated!Program!Management!and!!PLM!Systems!

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems initially started as Product Data Management (PDM) systems to manage CAD models and engineering drawings. But very quickly, they expanded to support larger product development efforts like process automation and compliance. Program Management capabilities have been developed in PLM systems as a natural extension of the development process.


• Contract and Requirements Management: PLM systems manage contractual documents and support collaborative negotiations. Contractual requirements can be extracted from such documents and used as the starting point for the system engineering process.

• Engineering Data Management: PLM systems directly manage engineering design deliverables, including 3D models and drawings, as well as BOM, parts lists, spreadsheets and more.

• System Engineering: PLM systems support the entire scope of the process, including the initial designation of contractual requirements, breakdown of those requirements, defining functions and architectures as well as allocating functions to BOM items. This establishes a network of relations starting from contract requirements all the way down to design items.

• Program Planning and Control: PLM systems provide tools to develop and execute schedules against Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), which are combination deliverables in an organization that act as the starting point of project work. Furthermore, PLM systems provide the ability to identify risks as well as plans and actions, which are associated with relevant requirements, engineering deliverables, schedules and more, to mitigate them.

• Collaboration Platform: PLM systems offer tools to allow stakeholders across disciplines and the program supply chain to digitally interact in real-time or intermittently with any deliverable or artifact as a context. This supports a wide variety of usage scenarios for programs.






8!page!

Advantages!

PLM systems provide unique advantages when they are used to manage programs. The most interesting of these advantages, however, comes from the combination of multiple capability sets, not from any single one.

Contract negotiations, bidding and execution is one area where PLM systems offer an important advantage. Managing the contracts and associated requirements using a PLM system results in a single definition that the customer, contractors and suppliers can all reference. A change notifies all relevant parties, so everyone is kept on the same page. But just as importantly, the collaboration capabilities of PLM systems allow those various parties to digitally interact in the right context.

Another area where PLM systems offer an advantage is across engineering disciplines. Engineering deliverables, like 3D models, and system engineering artifacts, like requirements, reside in the same PLM system. As system engineers run their processes and develop system architectures, design engineers can start detailed design in parallel, instead of waiting for the completion of the system architecture. The PLM system acts as a powerful collaboration medium between the two groups as they perform trade studies as well as explore alternatives.

Engineering stakeholders, however, aren’t the only ones who benefit from the connection between engineering deliverables and system engineering artifacts. With program schedules in PLM systems, program management reports easily show the progress of work-in-process and the execution of ongoing processes against a program time and cost schedule. Additionally, project controls analysts can track the progression of the

engineering definition throughout the program, allowing them to measure the performance of the program.

One of the most important advantages for Program Managers, however, lies in the traceability provided by the PLM system. Because artifacts and deliverables like contracts, requirements, 3D models, project schedules, and more are not only in the PLM system but also connected with each other, Program Managers can see how they are all related which is critical when a change is proposed or pending. When there is a change pending against a contract, the Program Manager can understand which requirements, parts and schedules are affected. When an engineer suggests a design change, the Program Manager can understand which customer requirements and suppliers are affected. This provides powerful visibility into the implication of any change, acting as an early warning system, representing a critical enabler to proactively manage programs.

Disadvantages!

Few PLM systems provide back office capabilities, such as financials and procurement functionality. Integration connections must be deployed to allow financial information to be passed to the PLM system.

Conclusion!

In summary, PLM systems provide significant advantages for the management of programs. Most importantly, PLM systems enable the proactive management of programs by providing insight into the implications of change.






9!page!

The!Value!of!Enabling!Proactive!Program!Management!with!Technology!

Almost every kind of technology provides some advantage to Program Managers. The value that those technologies provide, however, are not all equal. It's clear that a technology that solely improves program management practices is not enough. Instead, technologies that offer visibility and collaboration across all functional program disciplines are those with the greatest value.

Value!Realized!During!the!Bidding!Phase!

The first place where such integration can deliver value is the bidding phase of programs. Winning contracts is critical, however it’s also very important to win them with the right contractual constraints. Programs won with unreasonable delivery schedules or infeasible system capabilities dooms the program with unachievable goals.

The ideal enabling technology captures the big picture of the proposal, ensuring that everything including requirements, architectures, schedules, designs and more are not only aligned, but also achievable. Program management has to play this role proactively during the bidding phase of the program. The right technology enables them to do that.

Value!Realized!During!the!Execution!Phase!

The second place where such integration offers value is after the contract is won. The transition from bidding to execution is always challenging, as different teams are often responsible for these different phases. The deliverables, artifacts and plans built up during the

bidding phase represents a significant amount of intellectual property to transition forward intact. An integrated system ensures that the program doesn't have to be rebuilt from the ground up. Using the right technology to execute this transition seamlessly is critical to the success of the program.

During the execution of the program, the Program Manager's need for visibility across all disciplines is of paramount importance. With so many stakeholders and organizational momentum, this is the phase where Program Managers must identify and act on risks, issues and opportunities before it is too late.






10!page!

Summary!and!Conclusion!

In today’s aerospace and defense industry, budget cuts are driving increased outsourcing of major systems into the supply chain, resulting in globally dispersed development. By the time an risk or issue manifests in such programs, one can only hope that overruns won’t reach catastrophic proportions. Instead, Program Managers must take a proactive approach to identify and act on risks, issues and opportunities early.

The!Role!of!Technology!in!Program!Management!

Software applications and systems enable a proactive program management approach in two ways. First, they enable the early identification of risks or issues with real-time access to work-in-process deliverables and the transposition of those deliverables against domain specific views. Second, they empower the coordination and facilitation of issue resolution by building ad-hoc teams with deliverables and views as the context as well as creating structured and unstructured project plans.

Technology!Candidates!for!Program!Management!

There are a number of technologies that offer advantages to Program Managers, including the following:

• Project or Portfolio Management Applications and Systems allow users to create tasks and track their progress to completion. However, they do not provide visibility to initially identify program risks or issues.

• Program Management Modules of ERP Systems integrate project management capabilities with back office functionality. Their shortcoming lies in the need for MDM integration and lack design support.

• PLM Systems manage design deliverables, system-engineering artifacts project schedules, contracts and more in a single system. Stakeholders from every discipline not only understand how their work is related to others’, but also gain insight into the implications of proposed or pending changes. This technology enables Program Managers to take a proactive approach.

The!Value!of!Technology!

The most valuable technology hits home in two distinct areas. First, in the bidding phase of the program, it provides the big picture of the proposal, ensuring that everything including requirements, architectures, schedules, designs and more are not only aligned, but also achievable. Second, in the execution phase, the right technology enables Program Managers to identify risks, issues and opportunities early in order to act on them.

For more information on Proactive Program Management, please visit Dassault Systèmes’ site.

Underwritten in part by Dassault Systèmes, all concepts and ideas developed independently, © 2013-2014 LC-

Insights LLC.

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