The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach

21 Case Study—General Dynamics UK¹

BACKGROUND

GENERAL DYNAMICS, HEADQUARTERED IN FALLS Church, Virginia, employs approximately 95,100 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems; armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies.

General Dynamics, UK Limited, is a leading prime contractor and complex systems integrator working in partnership with government, military and civil forces, and private companies around the world. General Dynamics, UK has 50 years’ experience in technical leadership, manufacturing expertise, and prime contract management skills to deliver C4I communications solutions, armored fighting vehicle (AFV) technology, and security systems for critical national infrastructure and deployable infrastructure. General Dynamics, UK has 11 world-class facilities across the United Kingdom and internationally, with over 1,650 highly skilled members of the team.

Due to the nature of the government contracting environment that General Dynamics, UK has to operate in, projects have to work within two key constraints, time and cost, where other agile methods don't always have this. This case study illustrates how a company can successfully develop a hybrid agile approach that blends together elements of a plan-driven approach for managing time and cost constraints and still provide flexibility to their customers. Nigel Edwards at General Dynamics, explains it this ...