Abstract Details
10/13/2015 | 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM | Atlantic I
Using Operational Risk Management to increase Systems Engineering Effectiveness
Using Operational Risk Management to increase Systems Engineering Effectiveness
One measure of effectiveness of any given systems engineering practice is that practice’s ability to mitigate product or project risk. Product and project risk reduction is the focus of most risk management processes. When a project team has a robust risk management process, they continually identify risks that may impact their ability to produce a product meeting customer requirements within cost and schedule constraints.
One missing aspect of most risk management approaches for software intensive systems is a focus on operational risk. That is, the evolving risk to the business or mission needs of the end user. This lack of focus on operational risk during the engineering process allows the creation of a chasm between evolving need and delivered product capabilities. The longer the development process, the wider that gap and the end-user becomes less receptive to deem the capability operationally effective.
When operational risk is high, end-users bypass the traditional engineering process and create more streamlined avenues to acquire capability. From a tactical perspective, the focus on deploying capabilities quickly to mitigate operational risk is viewed as successful. Capabilities are fielded and operational risk is mitigated. From a strategic perspective, these quickly fielded systems lack certain quality attributes such as robustness, evolvability, and maintainability that would have been considered in a traditional systems engineering approach, increasing total cost of ownership and logistical complexity.
When system and software requirements focus solely on mitigating strategic risk, the resulting systems are less relevant from a tactical or operational perspective. The driving requirements are associated with cost reduction, reducing redundant systems, or integrating capabilities rather than mitigating operational risk.
To increase the effectiveness of systems engineering, its practices, methods and tools need to have a greater emphasis on eliciting and understanding operational risk and the development of enhanced methods to continually track and react to evolving operational threat and risk during the development, deployment, and sustainment phases of the system lifecycle.
This presentation will explore the use of operational risk techniques to enhance the systems engineering process specifically focusing on operational risk as a reasoning framework for making architectural decisions for software-intensive systems.
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Brian Gallagher (Primary Presenter), CACI International, brian.gallagher@colostate.edu;
Brian Gallagher is Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence for CACI International Inc, a $3.7 billion information systems solutions and services company. In this role, he is responsible for CACI’s integrated program management and delivery methods, process effectiveness, quality assurance, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Prior to this position, Brian was the Director of Engineering and Mission Assurance for Northrop Grumman’s Intelligence and Cyber Divisions and Director of Acquisition Support at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). He also enjoyed a career in the U.S. Air Force in engineering and acquisition leadership positions.
Mr. Gallagher is currently pursuing a PhD in Systems Engineering through Colorado State University and holds an MS degree in computer science from the Florida Institute of Technology and a bachelor of technology degree from Peru State College. He is Six Sigma trained and is certified as a CMMI SCAMPI high maturity lead appraiser for CMMI for Development and CMMI for Services. He is an associate fellow of AIAA and a member of IEEE, NDIA, and INCOSE, as well as a contributing author of the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK).
Kenneth Nidiffer (Co-Presenter), Software Engineering Institute, nidiffer@sei.cmu.edu;
Dr. Kenneth E. Nidiffer has over 55 years of government, industry, and academic experience in the field of software and systems engineering. Ken has successfully executed positions as a Colonel in the United States Air Force, Senior Vice-President at Fidelity Investments, Vice President of the Software and Systems Consortium, and Director of Technical Operations/Engineering at Northrop Grumman Corporation. He is currently the Director of Strategic Plans for Government Programs at the SEI. Ken received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, Indiana; his MS degree in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Ohio; his MBA degree from Auburn University, Alabama; and his DSc in Systems Engineering from George Washington University, Washington, DC.
