Enhancing Software Management for Air Traffic Control Systems
In response to the evolving go-to-market needs of Air Traffic Control System & Software, the assignment intended to enhance the configuration management (CM) value proposal by implementing a comprehensive transformation plan.
" I have been appreciating the proactivity, quality of delivery, and expertise in Configuration Management of Mews Partners’ team for more than 2 years" (CM process referent for a major Aerospace & Defence Actor). "
Context
The CM discipline faces several challenges, including misperception at project level, partial implementation of CM processes, overlapping with other discipline (Quality, Cyber, Sw Assurance…) inducing a loss of meaning for configuration managers’ daily job. The transformation aims at improving the overall CM maturity of the entity – developing software preponderant systems – by promoting configuration managers’ expertise, to generate savings at scale for running projects and to prepare the arrival of product line concept.
Approach
The approach consists in establishing a CM maturity grid (diagnosis phase) and constructing a CM transformation journey strategy (change phase).
- The diagnosis includes the formalization of new concepts and capitalization of best practices around the five pillars of CM applied to System/Software and Hardware, by conducting workshops/interviews with stakeholders cross-disciplines, benchmarking key methods & tools from other industries, and defining a CM maturity assessment methodology.
- The change focuses on identifying pilot projects, to promote and deploy key CM principles through digitization of manual activities, better integration in PLM/ALM, improvement of CM roles in the CI/CD pipeline, trainings & awareness, consolidation of configuration management plans (CMP), while ensuring strong stakeholders/sponsors’ management.
Results
The project successfully delivered a complete CMP for a new Product Line (for the product and for instantiated projects), recorded awareness videos and released trainings to highlight the value of CM. It clarified the CM deliverables within the end-to-end Development cycle (System-Sw composition analysis, HW-SW compatibility, CM concepts adaptations for Agile framework, evolutions management for linefit and post-delivery for product line). It secured sponsorship and regular validation of the transformation’s improvements. Regular adaptations to projects’ context ensured that the plan fitted with concrete business & operational needs, leading to a significant improvement in CM maturity and integration with other disciplines.
