Advanced Development and Fleet Needs— A Real‐Time Dilemma?:Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and Technology Windows

Abstract

ABSTRACT The advent of integrated product teams (IPTs), which have been formulated and strengthened by recent acquisition reform initiatives, offers fresh opportunity for managers of modest‐sized programs (below the ACAT level) and their headquarters' sponsors to achieve alignment with today's budgetary realities. Ideally, IPTs bring together all the necessary people knowledgeably involved in various phases of product life cycle management, so that a new design or concept will receive the benefit of their accountability, experience and insight.While projections of a combat system's use are in decades, technology currently changes every 6–18 months. Can IPTs and planned technology insertion smooth this phase gap? The revolution or upheaval that occurs with technology change must also be within the capacity of the IPT to assimilate and manage successfully. This paper discusses the practical application and utility of IPTs to the delivery of emerging technology that provides practical solutions to urgent Fleet problems. The discussion assesses integration of the IPT process with a program of moderate size in the midst of a sponsor‐directed transformation to solve Fleet problems in a more responsive and timely manner.The questions — can the existing universe of IPTs be used to help accomplish the goals of accelerated‐development processes?, do such processes need an IPT of their own to fine tune project deliverables and program direction?, or, does the IPT approach lack significance in such applications? — are addressed to clarify the issue of IPT use in developmental programs of modest size targeting specific Fleet needs.