Bruce Powel Douglass, Ph.D.
www.bruce-douglass.com
[email protected]
R&D Capability Assessment
Solution-based service offering
Engineering modern devices is a complex activity requiring not only that
Service Overview each of several disciplines – such as systems, software, electronic, and
mechanical – efficiently produce quality system components, but that
the planning of such activities is predictably correct, the engineering
disciplines integrate well, and the projects are well-governed. Most
Assess your entire engineering engineering organizations suffer with problems of burgeoning
department’s capability and maturity in complexity, too many projects, ever shortening project lifecycles, and
areas such as requirements specification, increasing needs for quality and regulatory standard compliance. Your
customer interaction, engineering competitors aren’t standing still but are struggling to out-compete you
(systems, safety, reliability, quality and it is imperative that your engineering capabilities can meet this
assurance, software, electronics, and challenge.
mechanical), integration, and verification
Dr. Douglass provides the leadership, expertise, best practices and
Create a Gap Analysis that analyzes the tools to guide you from the start in the journey to transform your
difference between your current and your organization, one development team at a time. The first crucial step is to
desired capabilities understand where your organization is strong, where it is weak, and
what changes can maximize your engineering capabilities. The R&D
Identify recommendations for capability Capability Assessment works with your entire engineering department
improvement, including organization, to identify the things that work well, the parts of the engineering process
planning, process, tooling, and that are failing, and how to improve your engineering capability.
governance
This is done by gathering three distinct kinds of evidence:
Provide a phased improvement plan with
goal-based success metrics to achieve • Interviews with your department staff to hear their experiences;
your goal engineering capabilities this includes engineering, quality assurance, verification,
management personnel
• Review organizational plans and standards, such as your
Systems Development Process, configuration management
plans, quality assurance plans, requirements standards, design
standards, and coding standards
• Review project outcomes, including project schedules (both
planned and actual), defect reports, captured metrics, quality
assurance records, test plans and results and requirements,
design, code, and testing data
This data is analyzed to determine the significant gaps between your
engineering organization’s current and your goal capabilities, identify
recommendations for improvement, and – most important of all – an
achievable, phased improvement plan to transform your engineering
organization in a controlled, iterative fashion.
Agenda
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3
Initial Meetings and Interviews Gap Analysis Deliver Report
(1-3 weeks) 1 week ½ day
Kickoff project Identify issues and trends in interview results Deliver report
Establish vision and goals for the Review organizational process, standards and Discuss recommendations and
department templates alternative solutions
Establish scope of the assessment Review project data: requirements, design, schedule
(plans and actuals), defect reports, metrics, designs,
Plan and execute interviews with
code, test procedures, plans, and results
relevant staff
Identify areas of strength and weakness
Gather documents and project
data for ex post facto analysis Specify recommendations for improvement including
benefit, criticality, urgency, effort and time required
Create phased improvement plan
Write assessment report, including all analyses and
results
Assumptions
• Single site assessment usually requires one week on site. Multiple sites require a week per site
• It is common for Dr. Douglass to reengage a few weeks after the assessment report is delivered to work out the details
for executing the phased improvement plan
