Instrumenting the Acquisition Design Process: Developing Methods for Engineering Process Metrics Capture and Analysis

Abstract

There is a deficit of data on the detailed execution of design acquisition processes, data which is needed to truly understand and improve them. Simultaneously, the movement to digital engineering, and specifically model based engineering, offers a key opportunity to gather continual data needed to move acquisition processes forward. To address this issue, methods must be developed and implemented to capture key process metrics on the full product life cycle, which includes conception, design, development, and test. The engineering acquisition process should be instrumented, capturing engineering metrics at a level of granularity sufficient to provide actionable information to other acquisition programs. These methods would be implemented on a set of diverse engineering programs, utilizing internal engineering design tools, product data and life-cycle management tools, and manpower reporting systems to capture data. This paper first discusses a number of specific examples of process instrumentation undertaken by the authors, then concludes with recommended lines of research for fully instrumenting acquisition processes.