Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-240). / The design and development of a Main Battle Tank can be characterized as a technically challenging and organizationally complex project. These projects are driven not only by the essential engineering and logistic tasks; as the frequency of technological innovation increases system architects are motivated to apply an effective method to assess the risks and benefits of adopting technological alternatives. This thesis applies Bayesian Belief Network as a quantitative modeling and metrics calculation framework in establishing the preference order of possible architectural choices during the development of a Main Battle Tank. A framework of metrics was developed for the architect to communicate objectively with stakeholders and respond to challenges raised. These inputs were then encoded as variables in a global Bayesian Belief Network. Using a change propagation algorithm any changes in the probabilities of individual variables would trigger changes throughout the entire network and can be used as informing messages to the stakeholders to reflect the consequences of these changes. Two Bayesian Belief Networks were developed and tested to understand the effectiveness and sensitivities to the variables. The successful development of the Bayesian Belief Network offers technical and organizational benefits to the system architect. From the technical viewpoint, the model benefits include performing system tradeoff studies, iterating the design to incorporate feedback quickly, analyzing the sensitivity and impact of each design change to the overall system, and identifying critical areas to allocate resources. From an organizational process perspective, it enables speedier knowledge transfer in the project, and enables the engineers / (cont.) to be knowledgeable about how their localized change could affect other sub-systems. / by Keen Sing Lee. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2001. / Leaf 107 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 66). / by Raymond I. Ro. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-117). / Most major organizational changes never reap the benefits the original planners envisioned, they often take longer to implement than expected and in a dynamic environment that can spell disaster for a large enterprise. The Coast Guard is in the midst of several major organizational changes while planning several more. This thesis will use two powerful analysis tools to make policy recommendations that may lead to greater success in the implementation of change. The two tools are Enterprise Value Stream Mapping Analysis (EVSMA) and System Dynamics (SD). Chapter 1 is a more detailed introduction into the motivation behind this thesis. Chapter 2 will review a brief history of some of the major changes within the Coast Guard. Chapter 3 recapitulates some studies conducted in the business sector, with respect to organizational change. This chapter also explains some basic System Dynamics concepts to better contextualize the business cases mentioned. Chapter 4 describes the Enterprise Value Stream Mapping Analysis of the Coast Guard First District. Chapter 5 develops causal loops that attempt to model the dynamics of change within the Coast Guard. Chapter 6 describes some policy recommendations based on the lean enterprise evaluation and the system dynamics model we developed. Chapter 7 summarizes some lessons learned and then proposes further studies. / by Michael J. Johnston. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2003. / MIT Institute Archives copy: p. 3-50 bound in reverse order and inserted between p. 2 and p. 51. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-150). / This thesis combines three different areas of study that are very active nowadays: Lean Enterprises, Stakeholder Theory, and Social Networks. Elements from these three research areas have been articulated to produce a methodology that allows for the analysis of stakeholder systems. In order to successfully apply lean enterprise principles and practices the study of the way in which stakeholders are structured along the extended enterprise is an indispensable first step. In a similar manner, stakeholder management practices require the identification of the most salient stakeholders together with their motivations to participate in the enterprise's value creation efforts. Original frameworks and methodologies for stakeholder systems analysis are presented in this thesis. Several qualitative, quantitative and systematic techniques have been developed that allow for the characterization and mapping of stakeholder networks. Among them are models for stakeholder systems representation, a process for the identification of stakeholders, a method to determine their salience and relationships relevance, and several stakeholder network metrics. Also is proposed and demonstrated the use of Dependency Structure Matrix technique for the analysis of stakeholder networks structural and functional characteristics. Some of these methodologies rely on known theories and practices such as social network analysis techniques and other graph theoretic concepts although their combination and further development provide an original set of tools for the analysis of stakeholder systems. All these methodologies were applied to a real case enterprise scenario. The stakeholder system of a relatively small space application enterprise was analyzed and characterized. Several important / (cont.) conclusions were derived from this enterprise's stakeholder analysis, demonstrating the capabilities and adequacy of the methods and techniques proposed. / by Ignacio Grossi. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-88). / Change is an absolutely essential component of product development. However, some changes are too difficult to manage. It is contended that the difficult changes stem from the emergence of novelty. The significance of novelty is that it is not immediately apparent and can be overlooked. It is a common element in disruptive technology, knowledge management, and firefighting research. This work examines the effects of emergent novelty in a complex product development system. In order to do this a framework is developed to categorize potential types of novelty that are encountered. In addition, a unique perspective on the concept of organizational capability is introduced. What makes it unique is the idea that organizational capability is composed of the capacity to do work and the ability of actors to use that capacity. "Organizational infrastructure" is used to speak more concretely about organizational capability. These conceptual models are used to analyze the events of three case studies developed from actual projects in the Imaging & Printing division of Hewlett-Packard. Through the case analysis it is shown there is significant pressures to approach development as if all novelty is understood. However, by doing so almost guarantees problems late in development if latent novelty exists. It is speculated that the addition of excess capacity to the organizational infrastructure will allow for greater novelty detection. This in turn should decrease the complications from resolving issues related to the emergence of novelty. / by Steven M. Gilbert. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-96). / A platform based approach for product development allows companies to eliminate redundancies, efficiently utilize its resources and provide products for a wider market. The basic idea is to develop and share key components and to introduce new technologies in as many products as possible. The automobile industry has for long used the concept of product platforms and has successfully achieved savings in development costs and seen a growth in sales and market share. By creating a common software platform, this concept can be applied to software development for embedded systems where software modules and applications can be shared across products within a product family. This provides better code reuse and increases standardizations across products. This thesis will examine how the concept of platforms can be applied to software development from the viewpoint of the telecommunications industry. By using the power of a common software platform, telecommunication equipment makers can accelerate product delivery and introduce new technologies to a wider range of customers. With the right strategy, they can also make their products into platforms that serve as a foundation on which other companies can develop products and offer their services. / by Deepak Seth. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002. / Also issued in leaves. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-236). / Analysis of product and organisational architecture using dependency structure matrices to describe a series of domains, in conjunction with real options theory, assists in predicting the strategic capabilities of either existing or potential products and organisations, and likely optimal or maximal rates of change. This assists in predicting the extent to which technologically dependent organisations can realistically create and capture value from a portfolio approach as a number of technology conglomerates currently seek to do. It also goes some way towards explaining why existing organisations find it difficult to create or exploit new knowledge and thereby helps explain why many synergies remain unrealised. This suggests that strategic leadership of technology conglomerates must be by people who possess either the tacit knowledge of the financial, organisational and technical aspects of the business, or who possess explicit tools to bridge any gaps. Given that explicit financial tools are available, in the absence of unique individuals the strategic planning process needs to incorporate measures designed to a priori check that the proposed strategies will result in technical knowledge creation and organisational value capture. / by David M. Sharman. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-59). / This thesis shows the applicability and value of real options analysis in developing an oil field, and how its use along with decision analysis can maximize the returns on a given project and minimize the losses. It focuses on how capacity flexibility, the option to change the scale of a project, can significantly add value to a project especially in situations where technical uncertainties exist in a field development. This thesis first analyzes the Sample and Rother field case study, looking at the original project team's assumptions and expectations, the key uncertainties and the final outcomes. It then offers up an alternate approach to the problem using real options analysis that would have added more value to the project. It shows that for the given case study, it would have been beneficial to obtain the option to add capacity to the field development. It also recommends the level of capacity flexibility to include that adds the most expected value to maximize gains and minimize losses for various development scenarios. / by Abisoye Babajide. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2000. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / by J. Philip Perschbacher. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-131). / It is broadly accepted among software managers and architects that maintaining the integrity of software designs is important for the long-term health and viability of software product platforms. The use of modular, information-hiding architectures is considered beneficial in this regard, because they enable the addition of new features and the correction of software defects without widespread changes (Parnas, 1972; Parnas, 1978). Moreover, modular architectures in general add value to system designs by creating options to improve the system by substituting or performing experiments on individual modules (Baldwin and Clark, 2000). Recent research has sought to clarify and to define formally these notions of modularity, and their value in the software domain, though the use of software dependency models and software design structure matrices. These models provide a graphic representation of the relationships between the building blocks of large software systems, which can be used to aid visual understanding of their structure, and which also form the basis for quantitative metrics for evaluating the degree of modularity of a software system (MacCormack et al., 2005; Sangal et al., 2005; Sullivan et al., 2006). / (cont.) The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the development and validation of formal models of modularity and value, by examining the design evolution of two similar software systems through the lens of software-dependency-based design structure matrices. We find that the design structure matrix model demonstrates a form of information-hiding modularity that allows different rates of experiment in different software modules, and that also allows substitution of a software module without substantial change to the rest of the software system. Moreover, the cases demonstrate that such a substitution scenario can confer distinct strategic advantages to a firm. Based on these results, we suggest that software managers and architects explore modular architectures that localize areas of risk - technical and otherwise - in software modules with well-defined interfaces. / by Matthew J. LaMantia. / S.M.