Agile R&D Tools that Dramatically Reduce the Cost and Schedule to Develop Space Hardware

Developing spacecraft is critical strategic capability for the DoD, but it is a long and expensive process. The overall process has two distinct phases—R&D and Production. The Production phase has experienced many improvements with lean and agile manufacturing techniques applied throughout the supply chain. Comparatively, the R&D phase has experienced relatively minor improvements—most of which are from modernizing various tools, but not changing the underlying processes. As a result, one of the biggest opportunities for improving the delivery times of complex technology is in the R&D Project Management process. The current project management methods used for complex R&D projects were developed over sixty years ago for projects that had a lot less complexity and uncertainty. One of the key issues is that the work in R&D is largely invisible. So it’s difficult to tell who is working on what, and where the bottlenecks are. As a result, slips in the schedule are hard to notice. Our solution (Playbook) solves these problems with a proprietary methodology based on principles from the bodies of knowledge of Lean, Agile, and Theory of Constraints. These methods have been proven to cut development times by 30%-50%. The primary principles that enable these improvements are Decentralized and Rolling Wave Planning, Capacity Management, Critical Chain and Shared Buffers, Project Risk Management, Pull (vs Push), Queue Monitoring, Visible Work, Standup Meetings, and Daily Task Updates.