Tim Ayres proposes a vision for efficient organizational improvements through the effective use of an Integrated Life Cycle Management Framework (ILCM). The ILCM framework includes six tenants: life cycle planning and integration, expectation management, collaborative requirements management, life cycle systems engineering, technology planning and insertion, and continual integrated testing. Ayres argues that adopting these ILCM principles will help organizations achieve greater synergy, overcome dysfunctional silos, and improve their ability to develop and sustain effective systems on budget.

1. Vision for efficient organizational improvements through effective use of program resources By Tim Ayres timayres01@gmail.com Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyayressrsystemsengineer

2. Integrated Life Cycle Management Framework Tim Ayres will help you achieve the six tenants of Integrated Life Cycle Management Framework(ILCM) Life cycle planning and integration Expectation management Collaborative and continuous requirements management Life cycle systems engineering Technology planning and insertion Continual, integrated testing

3. Life Cycle Planning and Integration ILCM ensures the program is actively managed throughout its entire lifespan from conception and requirements generation to technology and product development and testing, and throughout manufacturing and field operations until the system or product is retired and disposed Three major parallel management and execution structures support life cycle planning and integration Capabilities-based requirements development System acquisition and sustainment Capabilities-based test and evaluation Execution framework provides a roadmap for ILCM stakeholders and process owners to use in the integrated management of programs across their entire life cycle

4. Expectation Management Expectation management establishes program credibility and accountability through formal, recurring communication among stakeholders and is the cornerstone of the ILCM process. Significant reasons to actively manage expectations: Developers, users, and sustainers often interpret requirements differently program changes occur throughout development and are not always documented which impacts cost, schedule, performance, and risk which affect end-item deliverables different users may have different views of probability of success expectations can drift apart over time through leadership/personnel changes.

5. Collaborative and Continuous Requirements Management Collaborative requirements development requires the user, acquirer, enterprise architect, developer, tester and sustainer to operate as one team. Continuous management is monitoring and controlling the system requirements baseline throughout the program life cycle. While the user is responsible for identifying the required capability, this must be accomplished in a collaborative environment with all stakeholders in order to understand and communicate the objectives.

6. Life Cycle Systems Engineering Life cycle systems engineering is the overarching process governing the transition from a stated capability need to an operationally effective and suitable system. Systems engineering addresses architecture, requirements development and management, design, technical management and control, and test and evaluation (T&E) / verification and validation (V&V). It is the integrating mechanism for balanced solutions. The systems engineering process begins early in concept definition and covers all efforts across all life cycle phases, to include sustainment and disposal.

7. Technology Planning and Insertion Technology planning and insertion is the timely maturation and incorporation of relevant technology throughout the program life cycle to ensure an operationally effective and suitable system. Technology planning and the assessment of technology readiness levels include consideration of such factors as reliability, producibility, testability, sustainability and operational performance. Successful technology planning and insertion as part of program life cycle management results in higher fidelity time-phased requirements with a more realistic schedule and improved cost estimates.

8. Continual, Integrated Testing Continual, integrated testing structures Test and Evaluation (T&E) to reduce the time it takes to field effective and suitable systems by providing qualitative and quantitative information to decision makers throughout the program‘s life cycle. Integrated testing minimizes the distinction between contractor, developmental, and operational testing by implementing integrated testing techniques and objectives to the maximum extent possible. Key stakeholders share all information in open T&E databases, identify problems early, engage contractors to fix deficiencies sooner, and ensure systems are ready to enter dedicated operational testing and fielding with a high probability of success.

9. The Challenge Budgets are reducing while capability is increasing The customer must find ways to do more with less Our mission is to provide seamless governance, transparency and integration of all aspects of systems acquisition and sustainment management This mission and resulting objectives must be used in conjunction with capabilities-based requirements development It starts with a strategic plan and completes with approval of requirements validation

10. Challenge (con’t) Continual improvement in organizational relations is critical to the fielding of effective and suitable systems providing objective information to decision makers Do we have objective reality? Organizational planning and continual development improves our chances for success

11. Effective Organizations Build upon the synergy of form, fit and function by combination or even collaboration between elements Greater than the sum of its parts Requires being comfortable in the interaction of responsibilities between organizations Trusting and believing when elements and resulting sub-functions seem most disconnected If they are allowed to operate freely, it will come back together in a new and better configuration

12. Dysfunctional organizations and silos Dysfunctional organizations live and function in silos, defend them and resist anything that tries to pull them apart. Organizations that operate in the form silo resist pressure from the function (and certainly the analytic) silo to focus on numbers vs. the emotional experience so important to style. And organizations that exist in the function silo resist pressure from the form silo to lighten and loosen up and not be so unconcerned. Such adjacent silos too often interact from a “zero sum game” mindset.

13. Synergy Synergy transcends that transactional stalemate Effective lifecycle management practices fuel that synergy by being able to see into the customers’ future to products overflowing with style, precision and functionality beyond what they can imagine. Organizations must not be constricted by living in a single silo, but flow naturally between them. Our goal is to go from divergent, expansive thinking to convergent, focused doing on a consistently sustainable basis. This can be applied to any company where competing functions and departments are so concerned with turf erosion and so protective with CYA survival strategies that they can never see beyond either and into their customers’ futures and beyond.

14. Planning Synergy begins with planning Implementation of systems engineering practices and planning is the organizational future for acquisitions and sustainment. Provides the common agreement for silos to coexist and move freely amongst each other Starts with a Systems Engineering Plan (SEP) or even a strategic vision to develop and maintain the SEP See details on SEP development and implementation.