Young Sah

Successful implementation of the IpX CM2 Baseline and Closed-Loop change process is a prerequisite to achieving the end-to-end configuration traceability driven by the needs of the model-based design and the digitalization of the enterprise.

When companies realize the value of elevating configuration management out from the shadow of engineering, they begin to see the real benefit of connected systems that are promised by technology but never achieved by technology alone. The underlying theme remains the same: improve the ability to accommodate change and keep requirements clear, concise and valid.

The Digital Thread refers to the processes and tools used for communicating data through a connected flow of an asset’s datasets throughout a product‘s lifecycle including Concept, Design, Production, Service, and Decommissioning, utilizing a complete digital data structure and a closed-loop change process. The CM2 Model further expands on this definition to ensure that we consistently provide “the right information, to the right individuals, in the right place, at the right time,” so that proper decisions can be made.

The Digital Twin is the data and intelligence that represent the structure and interrelated conditions of a physical item of any type at any point in its lifecycle. Its purpose is to understand the previous and current complete datasets that provide the information to understand past and present operations and make predictions about the future state of an item. These are very powerful digital datasets that can be used to optimize the physical item, significantly improving operational performance and enterprise business processes.

This course describes how the CM2 model for configuration management (CM) can be applied to software. The challenge boils down to what an organization believes. Organizations either expect software code to come out right the first time, or they do not. Its process will be designed accordingly.

The CM2 model is designed to ensure that code comes out right the first time. This does not mean software development is not an iterative process. It is where the iterations take place that is most important. With CM2, the customer and the developer gain a good grasp of what the overall product is going to be at an early point in its lifecycle.

With CM2, the development effort is led by a cross-functional team whose members have the full range of needed expertise. The same members serve as the Change Review Board (CRB). Change decisions are made quickly and, if approved, implemented promptly.

CM2 for software is a scaled agile iterative methodology that ensures that software design definition is clear, concise, valid. Source code is not written until the design to be achieved has been documented, validated and released by its co-owners.

When we think of an organization’s data we traditionally think of it as a simple tool or step in the process that helps an organization accomplish a goal. An organization’s data is so much more than a simple tool. It is the organization’s DNA; the foundational building blocks that allow you to leverage institutional knowledge, optimize current product offerings and conceptualize the products of tomorrow.

Think of the Digital Thread as the digital connective tissue between enterprise disciplines and datasets akin to the building blocks of a DNA strand. Individually they each tell part of the story from a different perspective and with a different focus. But connected together they become far more powerful. They build upon one another to create a product or project: a Digital Twin. This allows an organization to work initiatives and challenges tactically with confidence that the scope of the change is understood not only at its current point in the lifecycle but with an understanding of downstream implications to ensure the decisions being made address the full lifecycle of the product.

This course will provide practical knowledge and demonstrate that breakthrough business process improvement outcomes are achieved by holistically addressing the interoperability of your organization’s people, processes, systems and data. Technology enables process change, but desirable business improvement outcomes cannot be achieved without organizational changes. Ultimately, people must be inspired, empowered, and engaged.

Most organizations struggle with the ability to manage information accurately for the enterprise or throughout the product/solution lifecycle. How to maintain the Digital Thread from the baseline to the planning bill, then from the planning bill to the order bill, and finally from the order bill to the actual as-built record is a major challenge. Knowing which requirements, at which revision level, to use at any point in time is another. This failure creates a high level of intervention resource expenditure and an inability to track fielded configurations. This drives significant warranty, recall, and concession costs that can have devastating impacts on the business.

Activities driven through the Digital Thread impact the Digital Twin with a constant barrage of changes making the ability to manage the Digital Twin that much more complex. How an organization identifies, structures, links and assigns ownership to its requirements and internal processes directly affect its ability to successfully and efficiently perform the intended mission or achieve its business objectives. If this activity is ignored or done incorrectly, an organization pays severe penalties in the form of intervention resource expenditure. Those expenditures are the unplanned time, money, and resources expended to compensate for quality and schedule problems. When quality and schedule problems dominate the energy an organization expends on a daily basis, corrective action becomes the standard “way of working.”

This course will discuss why changing that environment requires an understanding of how current processes relate to best practices and the culture change that is needed to make the transition. The course will teach application of that ability is extended beyond design information to include all requirements for the enterprise, and the enterprise deliverables throughout all of the lifecycle phases. Keeping all of those requirements clear, concise, and valid at all times.