Integrating Program Management and Systems Engineering

6HOW INTEGRATION WORKS IN PROGRAMS

6.1 Introduction

Improving the level of integration is a journey that will be unique to each organization. The journey's ultimate goal is to develop and strengthen the organizational and behavioral competences that drive higher performance, stronger team engagement, and results that leave customers delighted. Frameworks can help organizational leaders and change agents evaluate where they are, where they want to be, and possible steps for transitioning from a current to an intended future state. This chapter lays out a framework that defines the key factors impacting effective integration between the program management and systems engineering disciplines, and how those factors link to overall program performance.

The framework presented here highlights how various factors work in concert to produce outcomes in complex behavioral networks. Since integration is a multifaceted concept, this framework explains the core dimensions and observed practices, organizational approaches, and skillsets in use by successful programs with high levels of integration.

This framework emerged from the multiyear research activities described in the book's introduction. The concepts presented here lay out the research findings and establish the basic knowledge foundation for the framework. The discussion includes some explanation of the process by which the framework emerged to better illustrate some of its key dimensions and elements. The following sections in this ...