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Synchronizing Systems Engineering and Implementation in Lean‐Agile Programs
Author(s) -
Maione Robert,
Wilson Mark A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2018.00495.x
Subject(s) - agile software development , lean software development , agile unified process , agile usability engineering , computer science , process management , pace , systems engineering , engineering management , software engineering , engineering , software development , software development process , software , geodesy , programming language , geography
In traditional system development programs, high‐level statements of capability and mission needs are elaborated and functionally decomposed, and then systematically allocated to discrete program segments or subsystems. Functional decomposition continues to be a classic systems engineering technique to define and manage the development of large systems, but this approach can create issues in systems that are being developed using Lean‐Agile methods. Lean‐Agile developers typically adopt a “time box” perspective, where the goal is incremental delivery of system capability on a predictable schedule. In other words, Lean‐Agile developers may adopt a development rhythm with increments of rapidly evolving capability delivered every 10–12 weeks, while the SE team stays focused on the progress of the overall system as it was originally planned and defined. This divergence of both pace and perspective can lead to misunderstandings between systems engineers and developers or worse, disconnects between what the systems engineers think the developers are building and what developers are actually building. Communication suffers when Lean‐Agile developers and program systems engineers operate in separate organizational “silos” instead of working together as a cohesive team. Day‐to‐day implementation decisions with potential impact to overall system capability can become buried within lower level engineering and development documents that are hard to synthesize to support timely program decisions. In our work with large programs employing Lean‐Agile development strategies, we discovered an approach that maintains systematic collaboration between developers and the SE team. In our approach, we explicitly measure and communicate incremental delivery of value using a new level of abstraction that we call Mission Value Threads (MVTs). MVTs directly link system requirements and their associated SE artifacts to Lean‐Agile development team backlogs and design documentation. This paper describes how to use MVTs to manage value delivery while fostering better collaboration between developers and systems engineers.