Observations on Expedited Systems Engineering Practices in Military Rapid Development Projects

This research, conducted in the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), examined systems engineering and engineering management practices for military rapid capability and urgent needs programs. Lifecycle of urgent needs programs is driven by “time to market” as opposed to complete satisfaction of static requirements, with delivery expected in months versus years/decades. The processes and practices applied to urgent needs must add value and not require an excessive bureaucratic oversight to implement, while at the same time address, understand, and manage risk such that programs can understand better where to include, truncate, eliminate, tailor, or scale systems engineering practices and processes. Focusing on aspects of the product, process, and people of military rapid organizations, the analysis showed that these organizations have the right team, develop innovative conceptual solutions, quickly prune the design space, and identify appropriate designs that can deliver warfighting capability expeditiously. While these observations may not seem new, they provide the foundation for a broader framework of rapid development, which is the subject of ongoing research