Improving Development Visibility and Flow in Large Operational Organizations

In large operational systems, understanding the status of evolutionary capability development is often difficult. This is particularly true where capabilities depend on significant software components that are managed and operated as interacting subsystems. Schedules are rarely stable due to significant external drivers, thus integrated master schedules are hard to maintain and update. On-demand (pull) scheduling methods have been shown to smooth flow and maximize value across a process. The mechanics of these methods enhance visibility by forcing informed discussions on value, capability, and priority and by providing timely, relevant information to higher-level engineering organizations. This paper uses a notional information management system supporting a large health care system as an illustration of a management architecture that supports such an approach. The architecture includes a network of kanban-based scheduling systems, enhanced visualization, and employs a services approach to systems engineering that allows its work to be quantized as part of the overall development flow.