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Enterprises exist in webs of alliances, partnerships, and cooperatives and must necessarily reflect their strategic intent at the level of these networks. This network level strategic intent is fundamental to developing security strategies and operational policies that consider emergent, decentralized behavior of the enterprise as a positive contribution to ensuring resilience in enterprise service. Recent strategies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have articulated that our homeland security solutions will only be found in the national enterprise via a collective and shared responsibility that stretches from national to local to community involvement. This paper presents our results from using the Boardman Soft Systems Methodology (BSSM) and supporting graphical systemic diagramming technique, i.e., systemigrams, to better understand and identify the significant elements and their relationships within the small vessel security enterprise as articulated by the DHS Small Vessel Security Strategy. BSSM and systemigrams allow us to help identify organizational and communication bottlenecks, provide stakeholders with the knowledge about the architectural structure of the extended network of activities in their environment, and equip system analysts with relevant information on understanding systemic issues with consideration of resilience factors. We conclude by identifying what we believe to be key observations in the realization of this strategy between maritime security partners and the small vessel community via maritime governance that should be embraced and not mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategic objective of a test and evaluation (T&E) organization is to detect defects, which must be fixed prior to system deployment in order to meet the operational needs and achieve customer satisfaction. Numerous process improvement models have been developed and applied to address the issue of preventing “critical” defects getting to the field. However, the escalating costs of system deployment (especially in government programs), due to critical defects found in the field, continues to be a major quality issue affecting customer satisfaction. The failure of programs to meet quality and performance objectives has been shown to be related to inadequate planning and an ineffective program management strategy. Thus, for a T&E organization, the program management strategy can greatly influence overall performance goals. While current literature on T&E quality improvement focuses primarily on T&E technical tools, equipment, and processes, little to no attention has been paid to integrating program management into the T&E organization's strategy. We intend to demonstrate in this paper that taking a holistic view of both T&E and program management (PM) activities using the tools of systems thinking can provide new insights to understand and create a more effective T&E execution strategy. Using Boardman's Soft Systems Methodology and Systemigrams (systemic diagrams), we evaluate the unification of a Federal Aviation Administration's T&E program management into its T&E strategy. The resultant Systemigram model represents the alignment of T&E with program management. We conclude with recommendations on how other organizations may modify their T&E execution strategy to achieve better customer satisfaction. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operating environment for test and evaluation (T&E) is changing with advancements in technology affecting users' needs and systems development approaches. These changes demand new strategies for conducting T&E to keep pace with the changing environment. However, collecting and managing appropriate data could pose serious challenges to T&E programs that do not have established processes. To address this issue, the authors conducted a systemic analysis of previous operational T&E programs within a government T&E organization to determine the extent to which integration of project management with technical processes contribute to making T&E execution easier. The research analysis demonstrates that the application of project management practices contributes to achieving success in executing T&E programs within the Federal Aviation Administration. This research contributes to the field by identifying the critical dimensions of project management that contribute to achieving operational T&E program success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many U.S. government agencies and their contractors have subscribed to using the prescriptive metric of technology readiness level (TRL) as a measure of maturity of an individual technology, with a view toward operational use in a system context. A comprehensive set of concerns becomes relevant when this metric is abstracted from an individual technology to a system context, which may involve interplay among multiple technologies that are integrated through a system development life cycle. This paper proposes a system-focused approach for managing system development and making effective and efficient decisions during this life cycle. A system readiness level (SRL) index that incorporates both the current TRL scale and the concept of an integration readiness level is presented with methods for determining current and future readiness of a system. Using techniques in evolutionary algorithms, the SRL index is optimized based on resource allocation to provide a decision support approach that enhances managerial capabilities in the system's development life cycle. The optimization model for the SRL is then executed with a case example and resource constraints of 75%, 60%, 45%, 30%, and 15% to demonstrate how it can be used to make strategic planning decisions in the system's development life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to remain competitive, organizations have to make themselves accessible to a diversity of alternatives, which could be a direct influence on their flexibility; however, flexibility introduces a new context by which these organizations manage the systems they realize. In this paper, we present a theoretical perspective on the management of flexibility of a type of system called a System of Systems (SOS). We first define flexibility as it has been described with respect to the management of a system, how this may relate to SoS and establish that there is a deficiency for understanding how the SoS should be managed near the optimization region of flexibility. We then propose a theoretical model for managing flexibility in a SoS that begins to address this optimization region of flexibility. We demonstrate our model with an empirical case study of the New York City Yellow Cab SoS and conclude with potential implications this research has on flexible systems management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the use of a new Systems Readiness Level (SRL) scale for managing system development and for making effective and efficient decisions during the defense acquisition process. This scale incorporates both the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the concept of an Integration Readiness Level (IRL) developed by Stevens Institute of Technology. The paper describes the foundations for the SRL and how it is formulated; it also demonstrates the SRL's application within the defense acquisition process using a sample case with notional readiness values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some costly failures of projects within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA has been criticized for their improper use or lack of independent reviews in projects. To begin to understand some prospective success characteristics of project reviews within NASA and potentially across engineering management, a qualitative case study methodology was used with four NASA projects to identify key attributes of independent project reviews. These attributes were identified in relation to categories of reviewer, reviewee, and the review type. Within each of these categories, attributes were identified and characterized as size, competence, independence, authority, culture, and formality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most common myths in the discipline of project management is the assumption that all projects are the same and can be managed with the same set of processes and techniques. In reality, however, projects differ and "one size does not fit all." Based on our previous research, we have learned that adapting the right approach to the right project is critical to project success; yet, very few organizations know how to distinguish among their project efforts. Furthermore, we have also learned that there is no universal framework that works effectively for all organizations. NASA's procedures suggest several distinctions among projects based on product lines and priority levels. These distinctions form a base for different approval processes. The next step will be to help managers actually manage different projects in different ways. The purpose of this research was to study several NASA programs and start identifying a framework that would work for project managers and teams in the NASA environment. We used four current projects as case studies to test the validity of potential frameworks, and have suggested an initial NASA-specific framework that could eventually lead to guidelines for tailoring project and program management to project type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]