Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine January 2018 - 8

Systems Engineering Approach Using Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD)
developed a work breakdown structure.
That was useful in developing our project
Gantt chart and identifying critical paths
to completion. The project's schedule was
developed in Microsoft Project based on
deliverable dates for milestones. Internal
tasks, deadlines with safety margins, and
owners for different tasks were included
to ensure all details were completed before the main milestone.
The IPPD is a systems engineering
methodology developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, illustrated in Figure 1
[2]. The IPPD helps to couple systems and
quality engineering methods and provides
a structured decision-making process [39].
In Phase I of our project, we used the topdown design decision support process of the
IPPD. Figure 2 shows a summary of how
we used this method (left side) and molded
it according to our project needs (right side).

Figure 1.

Integrated product and process development method to systems engineering.

Establishing the Need
In this first step, stakeholders' needs are
gathered, and the READI team performed
a literature review to understand and define the problem. NEOs are objects in
space with a perihelion, closest approach
to the Sun, of less than 1.3 astronomical
units. Hundreds of thousands of nearEarth asteroids and comets have been
identified, and each of them represents
a potential threat to the continuation of
life on Earth. Major impact events have
previously occurred, and NEW impacts
still occur today. A recent example is
the Chelyabinsk incident in Russia on
February 15, 2013 [1].Nations around
Figure 2.
IPPD in phase I of planetary defense team project.
the world are beginning to recognize the
danger that NEOs and Potentially HazardC Detection and Tracking
ous Objects (PHOs) pose to life on Earth and the importance of
properly addressing the threat of an impact as a global risk. The
C Deflection Techniques
READI project's mission statement is: "To develop a Planetary DeC Global Collaboration
fense Program for detection and mitigation of asteroid and comet
threats with short warning periods, consisting of ground and space
C Outreach and Education
segments that include technologies, global cooperation, and public
C Evacuation and Recovery
awareness."
They were established after talking to numerous experts and
the
preliminary literature review performed by the team. Having
Defining the Problem
these main areas established helped us with designing our team
structure, dividing the work, and analyzing each field. The groups
In this step, we analyzed the desires of the stakeholders, the generused a variation of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methal public, who may not necessarily be knowledgeable in planetary
od, which is a method to map the voice of the stakeholder to the
defense matters. Different aspects of the problem were looked into
engineering characteristics needed by a product [15]. A full-scale
with the aid of some management and planning tools. We used
QFD was not necessary as not all information is available for puba mind map, as shown in Figure 3, to collect all team members
licly accessible resources, and most of the techniques used are in
brainstorm ideas, which were then grouped into five main areas:
8

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

JANUARY 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine January 2018