Functional Capabilities In Complex Project Engineering

摘要

Recent performance in the acquisition of large scale defense systems has not met expectations. The acquisition community in the U.S. Department of Defense has been challenged by the department's transition to network-centric warfare, which leverages complex system collaborations to achieve significant new capabilities. Developing systems of systems or systems of services requires evolved system engineering and project management practices, and better integration of both. This paper presents early learning in this regard from one ongoing system-of-systems development program, the Single Integrated Air Picture (SIAP). A "functional capability" concept evolved to become a potentially unique definition of a project that has proved useful in a system-of-systems development context. This paper then explains a recommended structured-development approach built on Functional Capabilities that yields artifacts promoting communication, specification, and work phasing. It also compares the approach to the CMMI™ to demonstrate the wide process applicability of Functional Capabilities.