International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / To meet specific test and evaluation requirements, the Hardened Subminiature Telemetry and Sensor Systems (HSTSS) program is addressing the miniaturization and ‘G’ hardening of telemetry components. Two custom Integrated Circuits (ICs) are in development to support the design of miniature Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) systems with up to 128 analog input channels. This paper describes the design and development of the custom IC chips of the HSTSS Data Acquisition Chipset (DAC). The original requirements, the roll of the Integrated Product Team (IPT), design decisions, a discussion of the additional features, and practical limitations of the Data Acquisition Chipset will be covered.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / A program’s success is measured by the three parameters of cost, schedule and performance. This is true of any acquisition program, including instrumentation development and procurement. The primary purpose of Logistics is to influence and reduce the Total Ownership Costs (TOCs) to the Department of Defense while procuring a supportable system that meets the customer’s needs. The time to influence the TOCs is as early in the life-cycle of the program as can be done - where it is cheapest to affect a “fix.” This paper will briefly describe where Logistics influences ownership costs in the acquisition process. Examples of cost drivers identified in the Hardened Subminiature Telemetry Sensor System (HSTSS) program will be provided and the role of Integrated Product Team (IPT) members in influencing and reducing the TOCs will be discussed. This process is not just in the purview of the traditional logistician, but is also performed by each member of the program’s IPT. Each IPT member brings his unique knowledge and experiences to the teams pool of corporate knowledge. Examples will be provided of decisions made by the IPT that reduced TOCs.

Research shows that customer involvement is an important factor affecting project outcomes in agile system development projects but the phenomenon is in practice less studied. The study aims to build an understanding of customer involvement in practice and the factors that influence the phenomenon. The study has been carried out as a case study at a Swedish consulting company active in the IT industry. Through interviews with participants in product teams for five system development projects, data has been collected regarding two themes, work methods and customer involvement. The analysis was based on the theoretical framework used in the study. In the discussion, this was compared to the purpose of the study. Conclusions were drawn in relation to theory, purpose and research questions. The study provides insights into the practical application of customer involvement in relation to its theoretical benefits, and presents factors that may affect its application. The study's conclusions describe what customer involvement can look like in practice based on the projects studied, as well as factors that have been found to affect involvement. Furthermore, problems associated with generalising an approach to the phenomenon are also discussed. The study has found that customer involvement was crucial to the outcome of the studied projects and the study's conclusions can be used to promote customer involvement in future projects. Lessons learnt from the studied projects and their outcomes can contribute to a better understanding of the design of customer involvement initiatives. / Forskning visar att kundinvolvering är en viktig faktor som påverkar projektutfall inom agila systemutvecklingsprojekt men fenomenet är i praktiken mindre beforskat. Studien avser att bilda en förståelse kring kundinvolvering i praktiken och de faktorer som påverkar fenomenet. Studien har utförts som en fallstudie på ett svenskt konsultföretag verksamt inom it-branschen. Genom intervjuer med deltagare i produktteam för fem systemutvecklingsprojekt har data samlats in gällande två teman, arbetssätt och kundinvolvering. Analysen grundades på den teoretiska referensram som använts i studien. I diskussionen ställdes detta mot studiens syfte. Slutsatser drogs i förhållande till teori, syfte och frågeställningar. Studien bidrar med insikter kring praktiskt förankrad kundinvolvering i förhållande till dess teoretiska fördelar, och redovisar faktorer som kan komma att påverka dess tillämpning. Studiens slutsatser beskriver hur kundinvolvering kan se ut i praktiken utifrån de projekt som studerats, samt faktorer som funnits påverka involveringen. Vidare diskuteras även problematik kopplad till att generalisera ett tillvägagångssätt för fenomenet. Studien har funnit att kundinvolvering varit avgörande för utfallet av undersökta projekt och studiens slutsatser kan användas för att främja kundinvolvering i framtida projekt. Lärdomar från studerade projekt och dess utfall kan bidra till bättre förståelse kring utformning av insatser gällande kundinvolvering.

Published works cite that 70-80% of the total cost of a product is established during conceptual design, and that improvements in time-to-market, quality, affordability, and global competitiveness require the development of better approaches to assist decision-making during the early stages of product design, as well as facilitate enterprise knowledge management and reuse. For many years, concurrent engineering and teaming have been viewed as “the answer” to product development woes, but studies reveal teaming is not sufficient to handle the task complexities of product development and the long-term goal of enterprise learning. The work of Roberto Verganti provides new insights with regard to reciprocal interdependencies (RIs), feedforward planning, selective anticipation in the context of improving teaming and concurrent engineering, as well as enterprise learning, knowledge management, reuse. In this research, reciprocal interdependencies management (RIM) is offered as a means of addressing product development and concurrent engineering issues occurring in the early stages of design. RIM is combination of Verganti’s concepts, a conceptual RIs structure, new RIM-application strategies, RIM-diagramming, and a conceptual RIM-based decisions support system, which come together to form a vision of a RIM-based enterprise knowledge management system. The conceptual RIM-based DSS is presented using the specific case of supporting a working-level integrated product team (IPT) engaged in the design of an aircraft bulkhead. A qualitative assessment tool is used to compare RIM to other approaches in the literature, and initial results are very favorable.