This blog recaps a section of our recent webinar, to watch the entire presentation, visit Techniques to Manage Work Breakdown Structures.

Streamline Your Program Management: Techniques to Manage Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)

In aerospace and defense program management, success hinges on coordinating complex, interconnected projects while maintaining clear visibility across your entire program. When managing multiple systems and stakeholders, your work breakdown structure becomes the foundation that either strengthens or undermines your project’s success.

In this webinar, Cary Bryczek, Director of Aerospace & Defense Solutions at Jama Software, demonstrates how to incorporate MIL-STD-881F work breakdown structures into Jama Connect^® as part of your systems engineering processes.

Whether you’re managing space systems, information systems, or strategic missile programs, this webinar will show you how to streamline your program management with techniques to manage your WBS.

Key Takeaways:

• MIL-STD-881F fundamentals: Understanding the Department of Defense Standard Practice and how it improves acquisition communication
• Real-world implementation: See how MIL-STD-881F work breakdown structures can be incorporated into Jama Connect, including a live demonstration.
• Cross-functional alignment: Strategies to coordinate teams and manage interdependencies across complex defense programs
• Commodity-specific insights: How WBS elements apply to space systems, information systems, launch systems, and strategic missile systems
• Communication enhancement: Best practices for developing uniform WBS processes that improve stakeholder alignment and regulatory compliance.

Webinar Preview, Click HERE to Watch The Entire Presentation

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW

Cary Bryczek: So, here’s a quick look at what we will cover today, and in the end we’ll have a Q&A of course. So, we’ll talk about some strategies for a work breakdown structure construction, obviously we’ll talk about what WBS is used for, we’ll look at a WBS hierarchy, and the product breakdown structure, talk about the differences, we’ll see a live example in Jama Connect, and we’ll finish up with maybe some possible extensions that you might use in Jama Connect through integration. So, what is a work breakdown structure? I went out there and did some research. Project management institute talks about a work breakdown structure being, that it defines a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the objectives.

Really, when you see these kinds of definitions, the important parts are the deliverable-oriented and the work. So, it’s not like a task list, it’s what you’re doing to produce the product or the system that you’re building. The Defense Acquisition University defines a WBS as a product-oriented family tree of hardware, software, services, data, and facilities. So, the theme really is this product-oriented and a tree composition of the work breakdown structures. And it’s not only composed of the product pieces itself, but the services and the data and the facilities and the results of the systems engineering efforts. So, it’s the effort plus the product itself. Who uses work breakdown structures? Really, they’re required or strongly recommended in various industries and government sectors, especially where project management, cost control, and systems engineering are critical.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Aerospace

Bryczek: With aerospace and defense contractors, they are required to submit a WBS as part of their proposals and their contracts. They are used for cost estimation, scheduling, and risk management. Construction and engineering firms, WBS is essential for managing large infrastructure projects. It’s often required by clients or even regulatory bodies. IT software development, project management professionals, so there’s a lot of people that are project management professionals that are using a WBS as part of their repertoire to deliver good projects, or even consult with organizations to deliver good project management practices.

WBS has lots of standards and guidelines to assist practitioners. So, in many cases, following the specific guidance within the documents is mandatory. Here I’ve just highlighted some notable guidelines, MIL-STD-881 is required for all ACAT programs, NASA also has a very prescriptive method to implement WBS, PMI has published books, and has lots of references available online for practitioners. The European, I didn’t capture this one, but the European Cooperation for Space Standardization, the ECSS group, in Europe, they provide detailed guidance as well on work breakdown structures through their management standards. And they reference principles from ISO 9000, and it really aligns their standards and their product assurance through a harmonized way to do work breakdown structures.

So, what’s the purpose of a WBS? It’s an assistant mechanism for any stakeholder really, in the development of a clear vision of the end products, or the outcomes to be produced by the product. So, it’s a framework for all of the deliverables throughout the life cycle. So, the WBS extends the product breakdown structure because it’s capturing all of the work that’s necessary for the project by adding in the non-product work. So, if you’re constructing a bicycle, well, I have to draft the CAD model, I have to review it, I have to do a lot of these things that are not necessarily part of the bicycle, a component, but these are part of the engineering activities. So, a work breakdown structure is not a to-do list, it’s not a schedule or an estimate, and it’s not really a tool to even make your life harder.

RELATED: Cybersecurity in the Air: Addressing Modern Threats with DO-326A

Bryczek: So, it supports very large projects so that you can eliminate risk, and also it will help you with the scope creep as well. So, you don’t want to do more work than what’s on that WBS, so it really helps people understand the scope of the kinds of activities that they’re producing because it is deliverable based. So, the benefits, it helps prevent work from slipping through the cracks, it helps people understand where the pieces fit into the overall project management plan. So, if you’re a software developer and you’re writing this one piece of the software requirement spec, or the software system spec, now you know why your deliverable is due, when, and how it fits in with the overall structure. It facilitates that communication and cooperation across the whole team, it also helps you prevent changes, that WBS is kind of like, this is the guide path for everything that you do. And it helps get team buy-in and helps build the team. it helps people get their mind around the project itself.

So, what do we have to do to create the statement of the work breakdown structure? So, a work breakdown structure is, first, you go through this process of identifying the system or the project end item to be structured. So, you’re trying to understand that scope, what is it that we’re building? And then, you take that product and you successively subdivide it into increasingly detailed and manageable subsidiary work products or elements. So, you’re taking this product, this bicycle, and you’re decomposing it. I have a frame, I have the front wheel, I have the rear wheel, I have the brakes… And then, what you’re going to do is take that product breakdown structure that’s been subdivided, and now use that to determine what the work breakdown structure is. So, you’re going to focus on these outcomes and identify these deliverables. So, the focus is supposed to be on the outcomes, not the activities needed to reach them.

TO WATCH THE ENTIRE WEBINAR, VISIT:
Techniques to Manage Work Breakdown Structures

An Inside Look at the Airborne Fire Control Radar Market: The Sky’s AI

These days, air superiority isn’t just about speed and firepower; it’s also about data and information. At the center of this data-driven battlespace is the Airborne Fire Control Radar (AFCR), a cutting-edge system that gives pilots unparalleled situational awareness. The AFCR systems on an aircraft act as its eyes and brain, enabling it to track, detect, and engage targets with remarkable accuracy from a considerable distance. They have a significant impact on the outcome of aerial engagements and the effectiveness of combat aircraft, making them vital to military aviation.

This blog will examine the ever-changing AFCR market. We’ll look at the current developments that are fueling its expansion, such as evolving geopolitical environments and technological advancements. The main participants in the industry, their difficulties, and the prospects for this crucial defense technology will also be discussed.

What is an Airborne Fire Control Radar?

Military fighters, bombers, and attack helicopters are the main aircraft equipped with the advanced sensor system known as an Airborne Fire Control Radar. An AFCR offers the high-resolution information required to direct weapons to a target, in contrast to conventional surveillance radar, which merely detects objects. It provides the aircraft’s fire control computer with the target’s range, altitude, speed, and trajectory. This enables the pilot or system to fire cannons or launch missiles with a high chance of hitting a target directly, even if the target is moving quickly or evasively.

It is impossible to exaggerate the significance of these systems. They enable a single aircraft to engage multiple threats at once, monitor large areas of airspace, and discriminate between friendly and hostile forces. To put it simply, an air force that has a better AFCR system has a clear combat advantage.

Current Drivers and Trends in the Market

A number of important factors are propelling the global AFCR market’s steady growth. The main drivers are global air force modernization and geopolitical tensions. Countries are investing in new-generation fighters with cutting-edge technology and updating their current fleets of aircraft with more sophisticated radar systems.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Aerospace

Developments in Technology

The primary force behind change in the AFCR market is technology. There are two noteworthy developments:

• AESA Radar Dominance: The industry standard today is Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars. Because AESA systems can electronically steer their beams, they can track multiple targets in different directions simultaneously, unlike older mechanically scanned radars. They are essential for contemporary air forces because they are more dependable, more difficult to detect, and more resilient to electronic jamming.
• AI and Cognitive Radar: “Cognitive” radars are being produced by combining machine learning and artificial intelligence. These systems have the ability to learn from their surroundings, adjust in real time to new threats, and more accurately separate targets from clutter. By lessening the pilot’s workload and accelerating decision-making, this technology has the potential to completely transform air combat.

Increasing Need for Unmanned Systems

A new area for AFCR systems has been made possible by the widespread use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. Sophisticated, portable radars are necessary for advanced combat drones to conduct autonomous missions and surveillance. Compact and effective AFCR solutions designed for UAVs will become more and more necessary as their use in military operations grows.

Obstacles in the Market

The AFCR sector still faces many obstacles in spite of its expansion. These difficulties may affect development schedules, expenses, and the general growth of the market.

High Costs of Development and Production

The complexity of AFCR systems necessitates years of study and billions of dollars in funding. They are costly to manufacture and maintain because they require sophisticated electronics and exotic materials. The potential market size may be constrained by these exorbitant expenses, which may act as a deterrent for smaller countries seeking to update their air forces.

RELATED: Empowering Efficiency: Parry Labs Selects Jama Connect^® for Seamless Use, Unparalleled Traceability, and Streamlined Review Cycles

Tough Regulatory Obstacles

The export of sophisticated AFCR systems is strictly regulated since it is a vital military technology. To keep sensitive technology out of the wrong hands, governments enforce stringent regulations. Market expansion may be slowed by these export restrictions and international arms control laws, which can make international trade and cooperation more difficult.

Complexity of System Integration

One of the biggest engineering challenges is integrating a new radar system into an existing aircraft. Aircraft hardware types and avionics interfaces differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, creating interoperability challenges. For the radar to function flawlessly with the aircraft’s other avionics, mission computers, and weapon systems, significant hardware and software adjustments are needed. Program upgrades take longer and cost more because of this complexity.

Prospects for the Future and New Technologies

With ongoing innovation poised to unlock new capabilities, the AFCR market appears to have a bright future.

The shift to multifunction RF systems is among the most exciting developments. Future aircraft will use a single, integrated aperture that can do all of these tasks at once, rather than having distinct systems for communications, radar, and electronic warfare. This will significantly increase an aircraft’s capabilities while decreasing its size, weight, and power consumption.

The creation of distributed and networked radar is another expanding field. This idea uses real-time radar data sharing between various platforms, including fighters, drones, and satellites, to produce a single, complete image of the battlespace. This networked strategy increases the effectiveness and survivability of all friendly assets and makes it nearly impossible for an adversary to hide.

In conclusion, a market ready for innovation

A key component of the contemporary defense sector is the market for airborne fire control radars. The need for more capable and intelligent radar systems will only increase due to technological advancements and the ongoing requirement for air superiority. Despite ongoing regulatory obstacles and exorbitant costs, the industry is progressing. The sky’s eye is growing more potent than before with the introduction of AI-driven cognitive radars, multifunction systems, and networked capabilities, giving pilots the advantage they need to manage the air.

Note: This article was drafted with the aid of AI. Additional content, edits for accuracy, and industry expertise by Mario Maldari, Cary Bryczek, and Decoteau Wilkerson.

In this blog, we preview a section of our recent customer story, “Ultra Maritime UK Enlists Jama Connect for Naval Systems Requirements Management” – Click HERE to read it in its entirety.

Ultra Maritime UK Enlists Jama Connect for Naval Systems Requirements Management

UK operation chooses Jama Connect for its ease-of-use and administration.

About Ultra Maritime UK

• Founded in 1944 and acquired in 2021 by Advent International
• Over 2,300 employees across fifteen locations worldwide
• Premier provider of undersea warfare systems, products, and solutions to US, UK, Canada, Australia, and allied navies worldwide.

CUSTOMER STORY OVERVIEW

This customer story is about Ultra Maritime UK, a division of Ultra Maritime, which develops equipment for surface, subsurface, and unmanned platforms, including acoustic and sonar systems and torpedo defense and radar sensor solutions. Customers include the Royal Navy of the UK, the U.S. Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Indian Navy.

Since the Ultra Group’s acquisition by U.S. private equity firm Advent International in 2021, Ultra Maritime has operated as an integrated company with lines of business headquartered in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia, responsible for developing both worldwide and localized solutions.

Ultra Maritime UK’s products and solutions must adhere to the highest quality, security, and safety standard,s including ISO 9001-2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, and ISO 45001:2018. In addition, the products must satisfy customer requirements and regional naval standards, including U.S. DoD/MIL-STD and UK MOD DStan.

Challenges

• Enabling collaborative remote working on requirements
• Managing both project and product requirements effectively
• Becoming more product-focused to balance global and local requirements

Evaluation Criteria

• Intuitive user interface for quick adoption
• Low administrative overhead
• Support for reuse of requirements and test evidence

Outcomes

• Consistency across projects
• Business mandatory requirements tool for all new projects
• Quick user adoption with minimal training
• Easy tracking of progress with dashboards and standardization
• Reduced risk with pre-built standardized project structures
• Easy management of large numbers of objects and changes
• Easy initiation and completion of reviews to action items sooner in development

RELATED: IBM Customers Choose Jama Connect the Most

CHALLENGES

• After years of managing project requirements with IBM^® DOORS^® Classic, these challenges drove Ultra Maritime UK to find a user-friendly collaborative tool that would enable them to increase their requirements management effectiveness and deliver projects faster.
• Enabling collaborative remote working on requirements
• Managing both project and product requirements effectively
• Becoming more product-focused to balance global and local requirements

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Ultra Maritime UK identified several requirements management tools as potential replacements for DOORS Classic, including Jama Connect, which a member of the engineering team suggested. They then established criteria to be used for the evaluation.

• Intuitive user interface for quick adoption
• Low administrative overhead
• Integrable with development and test software tools
• Support for reuse of requirements and test evidence

First, a top priority was for the new solution to have a modern, intuitive user experience for teams to get up and running quickly with their new projects. They needed software that people would want to work in. Otherwise, people might opt out of using the tool and work in disparate documents, which would introduce risk, impede productivity, and hamper efficiency. Second, it would need to have low administrative overhead that did not require team members to become full-time administrators. Third, it would need to be integrable with development and test software tools from different vendors. Fourth, it would need to support the reuse of requirements and test evidence from past development programs when starting new products or projects.

During the evaluation process, Jama Connect stood out from the competition as the solution that would best meet the company’s needs. “Looking at all the features, the user’s ease of use, and the low level of administrative time required, Jama Connect came out on top compared to the other tools reviewed,” says the Senior Systems Engineer.

In its search for a modern solution that would be quickly adopted, Ultra Maritime UK found that Jama Connect’s intuitive user experience made adoption extremely easy for engineers to get started managing requirements and test evidence more efficiently and intelligently. Tracking and finding information quickly and easily was achievable with Jama Connect’s powerful filtering and the ability to add hyperlinks to any architectural elements, requirements, test items or other objects. In addition, the ability to create a Definitions database and Glossary in Jama Connect was particularly useful for getting everyone informed and up-to-speed about projects. “Jama Connect has a highly intuitive user interface and allows for engineers to quickly and easily become accustomed to using it,” says the Senior Systems Engineer.

Having a simple and quick way for systems engineers to initiate reviews and for stakeholders to complete their reviews in a timely manner was a key area where Jama Connect’s Review Center led the way. The fact that reviewers were not required to be licensed as full-time users made Jama Connect more attractive. “Jama Connect certainly makes it much easier to initiate and manage reviews and be aware of progress through them,” says the System Design Authority and Functional Lead.

“Jama Connect proved to be extremely useful for making sure that we’ve got complete coverage and traceability of a given set of artifacts to see which ones have or haven’t reached the approved step. This helps ensure we haven’t missed any anomalies such as system requirements missing verification cases to avoid rework,” says the System Design Authority and Functional Lead.

Support for multiple IDs for the same object in Jama Connect made it easy to identify opportunities for reuse of older product requirements and test evidence for new products to efficiently manage shared elements of core and variant products. “The ability to identify, distinguish, and reuse global requirements across products and projects to reduce development time and cost is a strength of Jama Connect,” says the System Design Authority and Functional Lead.

In addition to product capabilities, team expertise, and training resources provided during the evaluation demonstrated that Jama Software would be a good fit as a partner for Ultra Maritime UK. “We were impressed by Jama Software’s responsiveness to our questions and the online training, forums, and support available to our team,” says the System Design Authority and Functional Lead.

RELATED: Jama Connect for Air, Land, Sea, and Space Datasheet

OUTCOMES

With Jama Connect, Ultra Maritime UK has benefited from:

• Greater consistency across projects
• One mandatory requirements management tool for all new projects
• Quicker user adoption with minimal training
• Easier tracking of progress with dashboards and standardization
• Reduced risk with pre-built standardized project structures
• Easier management of large numbers of objects and changes
• Easier initiation and completion of reviews

TO READ THE ENTIRE CUSTOMER STORY, VISIT:
Ultra Maritime UK Enlists Jama Connect for Naval Systems Requirements Management

In this blog, we recap our recent webinar, “Simplify Airborne Systems Lifecycle Milestones with Categories”

Simplify Airborne Systems Lifecycle Milestones with Categories

Gain Clarity, Reduce Risks, and Stay Compliant.

Struggling to keep track of deliverables across complex aerospace projects? You’re not alone. Managing deadlines and milestones often feels like navigating a maze of documents, spreadsheets, and shifting priorities.

In this webinar, you’ll discover how Jama Connect^®’s Categories feature can bring order to your milestones, improve transparency, and align deliverables with key compliance standards like ARP4754.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to Enable Categories: Simplify system development milestone tracking from start to finish.
• Clarity on Deadlines: Learn how to make engineering deadlines easier to understand and act on.
• Improving On-Time Performance: Organize milestone deliverables and optimize workflows to avoid delays.
• Compliance Alignment: Map development milestones to standards such as ARP4754 with ease.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Patrick Knowles: I’m Patrick Knowles. It’s great to meet all of you. Today, we are going to be looking at simplifying airborne systems, specifically lifecycle milestones, by using Categories in Jama Connect. As I mentioned, my name is Patrick Knowles. I’m a senior solutions consultant here. And it’s just a pleasure to work with y’all. I’m in our aerospace and defense vertical, so my expertise comes from that within the industry. And now I’m happy to be sharing that with you all as I work through consulting, as well as webinars. Today’s agenda, we’re going to tackle really the core problem, the complex challenge of milestone deliveries. From there, I’m going to introduce this category’s functionality and features to all of you. If it’s something you’re familiar with, this will be a breeze. If it’s something new to you, I hope this is a great introduction to how it works.

Then we’ll talk about how you categorize information specifically with some best practices. So, for even those who are used to using Categories, this should be a refreshing little bit with maybe some new tricks that you can utilize. And then finally, we’re going to talk about deploying this to your collaborative teams, which is really critical. Because if the data’s Categorized on day one and then the data changes or new data comes in, your teams are going to need to know how to manage this, how to look at the information. And it’s going to help solve that complex challenge of milestone delivery and some of the issues that we’re going to talk about there.

So, this complex challenge, deadlines, and stress. There’s data everywhere. It’s disconnected, it’s disparate, it’s annoying. That’s the core root problem here. But to elaborate on it, engineering in the digital age can feel like a maze. There’s sometimes a lack of top-down visibility to deliverables. So, if you’re a program manager or a lead systems engineer or a chief engineer, you might struggle to see all the work that your teams are doing. And sometimes there’s a lack of bottom-up visibility to the milestone. So, if you’re an engineer, you might not know about what milestone comes next, what’s due at that milestone. A lot of the time, that information is on a Word document or an Excel sheet, or maybe a Confluence page at best, where it’s listing out everything that’s due, but it doesn’t inherently connect to anything that is due and what those exact bits of information on.

And that leads to some unclear methods for contributing. How do I, as an engineer, ensure that we’re going to meet this deadline? I know what I see on my scrum board or I see from my manager, or whatever it might be, but maybe at the end of the day I don’t really understand exactly how my little bit of data is getting into that greater picture for this delivery to our customer or to our internal stakeholders. And then, of course, the common issue is always that data is disconnected, but that’s what Jama Connect is here to help with. We’re here to help you guide through that maze and to connect your data together to solve these key issues.

So, the risky scenario here is that your data is disconnected from a milestone, and that maybe you forget to deliver a certain part of the data, or you deliver outdated bits of data, or anything else that might happen there. And it’s pretty common across engineering. It doesn’t really matter where you work, there’s always this struggle to get everything ready from pencils down to delivery or whatever it might be. There are bigger views related to all of this work. There are stakeholders, customers, and, of course, the program leaders who need to see this information. And they need to see the most up-to-date, correct information. And without a clear way to connect your requirements specifically, because that’s what we’re going to mostly talk about here, is requirements. But without a really clear way to connect your requirements to your milestones or the rest of your data to milestones, you run the risk of simply leaving things behind.

RELATED: Jama Connect Airborne Systems

Knowles: So, how can Jama Connect help? Well, the specific use case we’re going to talk about today is enabling our Categories functionality in the tool. And we’re going to line it up with milestones from regulatory documents. Specifically, this example is going to be based on ARP4754B. However, if you are running the NASA systems engineering life cycle and you know the milestones in there, you could also line this up to that or any other number of product lifecycle milestones. We’re going to categorize data directly into things. And that’s going to help you really line it up to each of these listed items over there in the screenshot on the right. And then your members of the team are going to be able to filter, and view this data, and see it grow and add to it. And it’s going to be very transparent for them, how they’re connecting their information to the greater milestone.

With our foundation laid, there on what the problem is, I want to talk more about what Categories are. So, what exactly is a Category? Why do we believe this is a great option for you and the team to try and enable within your tool? Specifically, Categories have a similar feel to some other features within Jama Connect, like tags and pick lists. However, Categories win out overall with this specific use case for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Categories are admin-enabled and controlled, so your general user can’t populate a Category. They can assign information to a Category, but they can’t create new ones. Which means that, unlike tags, this is a kind of configuration managed by your admins. Pick lists are also configuration managed by your admins. However, they aren’t globally accessible to all item types. You’re going to have to create a field for every single pick list that you want assigned different item types.

Categories, however, can be globally applied to an entire project or to the whole instance of Jama Connect. That means that you don’t have to go and assign them to each of your item types. They’re going to connect to folders. They’re going to connect to texts. They’re going to connect with your specific requirement types, whatever it might be. And so, that’s an advantage that Categories have. Also, Categories can be available across multiple projects or just one specific project, which helps if you have a kind of multi-layered approach to your Jama Connect development of requirements. Finally, I’ll explain why not to use tags and pick lists. Tags, again, are creatable and by the user, and prone to error. If you type a capital letter in the wrong spot or put the wrong vowel in the wrong place, that’s going to be there in perpetuity, unless you have really strong tag cleanup processes.

And pick lists and multi-selects, you have to create it for each item type. You have to maintain the pick list. And then if an item type is introduced to a project, you’re going to have to re-add that pick list to it, and so on and so forth. So Categories is a little broader, but also just as controlled. And so, you’re able to kind of manage in a smoother way. So, how do you set up Categories? Well, you go to admin, Categories. And then over there on the far right of the screenshot, you’ll see enable Categories is turned on. It’s defaulted off for most instances, so make sure you turn it on first. From there, we’re going to set up all the Categories you see in front of you on the screenshot, as well as any number of other Category you may want to enable.

RELATED: Jama Connect Features in Five: Categories for Milestones

Knowles: Now, once you’ve got everything enabled, it’s all about how do you Categorize the information. So, we’re going to walk through some instructions, some best practices, and then we’ll do some demonstration, of course, here at the end of this section of the slides on how you do all this work. The first thing, like we mentioned, is enabling Categories. You do that through the admin. You assign things to either projects or global within your Jama Connect instance, and then you start utilizing them. One of our best practices here is to manage Categories through logical organizers, so folders, sets, components. That allows you to then click into the list view of that logical organizer and then assign all the Categories to the items within it. You don’t have to do this. This is just one of the more efficient ways, especially if you’re enabling an architecture-forward approach within your database. And of course, you can manage Categories in bulk, otherwise this whole explanation wouldn’t make much sense.

So, some of the tips, tricks, and best practices. Here, we’ve got the managing in bulk. And I’ll show you how to do that live. We’ll view categorized information in the exploratory via a filter, and so we’ve got to set up filters. Of course, those same filters can be exported or sent to reports, and then you can use multiple Categories on the same item. So, if one item is going to be delivered at the first milestone and you want to continue to deliver it at the next milestone, you simply add both Categories to it. And finally, you can always create baselines of everything filtered. So, these filters that we’re going to use to shrink down and narrow down the exploratory are also going to be very, very useful for baselining, for exporting, and for a number of other things.

So, now it’s time to demonstrate some of these best practices. The first things first is enabling Categories. As we discussed earlier, there’s this enable Categories button here on the far right. Once enabled, you’ll be able to add Categories with the add button here. Doing that is as simple as populating a single field with the information and hitting add. I, of course, have the whole system ddevelopment phase added already, and so I want to show you exactly what that looks like, how these things got nested underneath each other, and so on and so forth, by adding an eighth step. So, for today, the webinar phase is what we’re going to add to our development phases here. When we add, it’s going to actually add it at the top level. And so, then we need to drag it down into the system development phase.

We are going to use the move functionality here, as that’s the best practice in this scenario, where the copy Category functionality is better for using this for variant management. Now you can see that the webinar phase has been added to the system development phases. And you can also see that the system development phase is a project Category. This was done by managing access here on the right side, where you can pick the specific projects you’d like this Category to be assigned to. Or if this is something you want globally accessible, you can use the globally accessible button here. When you hit that, you’ll see that it turns orange and has a globe, instead of the project specific icon that you saw originally.

Now let’s look at how we categorize information within the tool. Our screenshots were showing this functions portion of this project, and so we’re going to dive into that to continue the continuity of this example. This specific set here, we’ll view the details of it, and we’ll simply scroll down and manage Categories. So, if we wanted to add that eight system development phase, webinar phase, we’ll simply select it, and click add and it will be added to this set of information. From there, we can bulk edit everything underneath the set by selecting all the items and clicking manage Categories. Same pop-up shows up, and we’re able to add that eighth phase of the lifecycle.

Now, this is really, really fantastic. If we want to go see everything in the eighth phase of the lifecycle, we can select the Categories feature over here. We can expand our system development phase and select webinar phase, where we see the items that were added there, including the set up here, and are able to kind of view this information in the list view. Now, if we wanted to see this in the explorer, we would go to filters and we’re just going to rely on this pre-built one here. And we’re going to right click apply filter to explorer. This is going to show us the information in a more succinct way. And we’ll talk more about this as we go on.

RELATED: Simplify DoD Program Work Breakdown Structure Compliance with Jama Connect for MIL-STD-881 Engineering

Knowles: Now that we’ve looked at how to enable Categories, we want to talk about how we develop this and deploy this data and these Categories for your collaborative team. I talked a little bit about this and showed you these exact steps here to narrow down your explorer tree, but what really is the benefit here? Well, you can set up a simple filter that’s based on the Category itself and right-click apply that filter to the explorer. This lets teams see just the information they need to care about coming up, especially if your sets, components, and folders are all categorized. This will show a team that, hey, we need to make sure all of the aircraft functions are populated for this coming milestone, because that set is there. Same with the aircraft validations, the requirements, and the plans and assessments.

Each of those logical organizers are categorized, showing the team this is something that is due at the upcoming milestone. The team then will populate information underneath that and they will categorize those items as well to bring them into the overall filter. Now, public filters are just kind of one of the ways we want to see this deployed to the team. We also need to demonstrate to the team how do you bookmark the filters, and how do you even manage Categories in general? So, in the next step here, I’m going to demonstrate managing Categories for single items, as well as a couple other little nuances within the tool that the teams will need to understand as they go ahead and use this in the deployed environment.

When deploying this information to the teams, it’s really critical that you’ve set your filters to be public. A quick way to note if something is public is if it’s got the asterisk next to the name here. You can always right-click and edit your filter and click the make public, and that will denote that it is public to all users using this project. Once your filters are all built out, you’re going to have them there. You’re going to teach your users exactly how to use them, of course, with the apply filter to explore. But also, if they need to send these for a review and get signatures on them or add a baseline, there’s also these features available to them.

And of course, bookmarking is really, really critical. Without it bookmarked, you can see I’m now missing phase one, so I have to go to all, and then go find phase one, and add it to my bookmarks and it’ll now show up in my bookmarked section here. Users most of the time are going to be adding new items to the tool. And so, if we add a new item here, we’re going to populate this new item, a new item for webinar. And that’s going to be our example item here to show that once we’ve saved it, this is when we get to add the Categories. It’s not a field that’s available directly when editing a brand new item. It shows up after the fact here down at the bottom with the managed Categories button.

You’ll then grab the applicable Categories that you want to add to this item, save it, and you’ll see them here. This helps, and it automatically adds things to the filter. You’ll see here that we’ve gone up in the number of items, and our new item for the webinar right here is now part of the filter automatically. Additionally, you can show your users that they can come directly here in the category section to see the same information, just without the filter and without some of those right-click functionalities that you get to see when you’re in the filter section. It’s been fantastic to work with you all today and show off these features in the tool.

WATCH THE ENTIRE WEBINAR HERE:
Simplify Airborne Systems Lifecycle Milestones with Categories

Self-Hosted and Cloud: Flexible Deployment Options for Your Requirements Management with Jama Software

Efficient requirements management is vital for the success of any organization, especially in industries like aerospace, defense, and government, where compliance, security, and accuracy are paramount. Jama Software provides a sophisticated and adaptable requirements management solution, ensuring that your teams stay ahead in competitive and highly regulated fields.

But did you know that Jama Connect^® isn’t only available as a cloud solution? Depending on your organization’s unique needs, you can also choose a self-hosted deployment option. This flexibility is the perfect answer for industries requiring strict data sovereignty, air-gapped environments, or regulatory compliance.

While Jama Connect is well-known for our cloud deployment option, we actually originated as a self-hosted product more than twenty years ago. And two decades later, we remain committed to delivering the best platform and customer experience for our self-hosted and cloud customers.

Curious about which deployment option best suits your business? This post will break down when to choose Jama Connect Cloud versus the self-hosted deployment. We’ll also answer frequently asked questions to help you make informed decisions.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution

When to Choose Jama Software Cloud vs. Self-Hosted

Jama Connect Cloud and Jama Connect Self-Hosted both empower effective requirements management. However, certain use cases demand one option over the other.

Jama Connect Cloud

Best for organizations that value ease of deployment, automatic updates, and seamless access. Key benefits include:

• Automatic Updates and Maintenance: Benefit from the latest features and security enhancements without manual effort.
• Anywhere, Anytime Access: Teams can access data on-demand, enabling global collaboration without roadblocks.
• Cost Efficiency: Eliminate the need for large IT infrastructure spendings; we handle hosting for you.
• Geographically Distributed Hosting: To ensure reliability and security, Jama Software hosts data in highly secure and strategic cloud locations. For customers in the US, we host data in Oregon, with a backup in Ohio. For EMEA customers, data will not leave the EU in line with GDPR. Two copies of the data is hosted in Ireland, with a backup in Germany. Jama Connect add-ons – Jama Connect Interchange™ and Jama Connect Advisor™ – can also be hosted in the US or EU.

Ideal for industries like tech startups, mid-sized enterprises, and companies prioritizing agility and scalability in requirements management.

Jama Connect Self-Hosted

Organizations working in highly regulated industries often need tighter control over their data. This deployment ensures robust security and customization on your own infrastructure. Benefits include:

• Data Sovereignty: Maintain control of sensitive data and ensure compliance with local regulations.
• Air-Gapped Environments: Operate without internet connectivity, ideal for sectors like aerospace and defense that mandate offline solutions.
• Regulatory Compliance: Handle development processes under strict standards like ITAR, ECJU, and EAR.

Ideal for industries such as government, aerospace, and defense, where security and compliance are non-negotiable.

Jama Connect Deployment Options

Jama Connect ensures that your needs are met, whether you lean toward cloud solutions or prefer in-house deployment. Here’s how Jama Connect offers robust flexibility in deployment:

Cloud Deployment

Our cloud-based SaaS solution takes the burden of infrastructure management off your shoulders. It ensures faster setup, seamless updates, and scalability as your teams grow. Collaborate easily across distributed teams while we manage the heavy lifting of security and operational efficiency.

Self-Hosted Deployment

Need control down to the last detail? Self-host Jama Connect within your IT infrastructure. This option provides your team with complete autonomy over data, operational configuration, and security measures. Your infrastructure, your rules.

Do you have questions about configuring a self-hosted deployment? Our experts are here to help. Schedule a consultation to explore the best option for your business.

RELATED: Jama Connect Amazon Web Service (AWS) GovCloud US Hosting

FAQ: Common Questions About Jama Software Deployment Options

Still not sure which deployment is right for you? Below are answers to some frequently asked questions.

Is switching between Jama Connect Cloud and Self-Hosted possible?

Yes, we offer migration support to ensure your data transitions smoothly between deployment types when upgrading or restructuring operations.

Do both deployments support compliance with industry standards?

Absolutely! Whether cloud-based or on-premises, Jama Connect supports compliance with requirements like ISO 26262, DO-178C, DO-254, and other critical regulatory standards. Your choice of deployment will not limit compliance functionality.

What level of IT support is required for the self-hosted deployment?

Self-hosted deployments require your organization to manage backups, updates, and server maintenance. However, we provide technical guidance to your IT teams to ensure a smooth setup.

Does the cloud option support multi-location teams?

Yes! With the cloud deployment, all team members, regardless of their geographic location, can work collaboratively without latency or access issues.

What security measures are in place for both deployment options?

• For Cloud: Ongoing updates, SOC2 certification, and AWS GovCloud hosting ensure enterprise-grade security.
• For Self-Hosted: You’ll adhere to your internal security protocols (including CMMC security requirements) and configurations.

Jama Software Provides a Smarter Approach to Requirements Management

When it comes to requirements management, there’s no “one-size-fits-all.” Jama Connect adapts to your unique organizational needs, whether you need a hands-off cloud solution or an air-gapped, team-managed infrastructure.

Experience seamless collaboration, reduce compliance risks, and ensure stakeholder alignment across your organization with Jama Software. Are you ready to optimize your requirements management process?

Explore our deployment options and see how Jama Connect aligns with your vision of compliance, security, and efficiency.

Learn More About Jama Software’s Deployment Options

Jama Connect^® Features in Five: Categories for Milestones

Milestone Tracking Made Simple with Jama Connect’s Categories Feature

Learn how you can supercharge your systems development process! In this blog series, we’re pulling back the curtains to give you a look at a few of Jama Connect’s powerful features… in under five minutes.

In this Features in Five session, Patrick Knowles, Senior Solutions Architect at Jama Software, demonstrates how Jama Connect’s Categories feature streamlines milestone tracking, boosts transparency, reduces risks, and ensures compliance.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Patrick Knowles:  Hello, I’m Patrick Knowles, Senior Solutions Consultant for Aerospace and Defense at Jama Software. In this video, I’ll demonstrate how teams can use Jama Connect’s Categories feature to improve visibility of deliverables at key development milestones throughout an airborne system’s product development cycle. This approach helps increase transparency, reduce risk, and ensure timely delivery of critical data.

When developing a complex system of systems such as an aircraft like an eVTOL, teams heavily rely on milestones. Tracking what is due at each milestone and certification stage can be a complex web of documents, schedules, and loose threads. Jama Connect’s Categories feature simplifies this by clearly organizing what’s due and when. This boosts transparency for engineering teams and reduces the risk of missed deadlines, as well as ensuring compliance with standards like ARP-4754 for systems such as an eVTOL.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Aerospace

Knowles: Solution. An organization administrator can set up milestone-specific Categories in Jama Connect. These Categories are assigned to the information due at each stage of a program, enabling teams to create filters, dashboards, and reviews for clear visibility. Unlike tags or other manual methods, Categories provide a structured error-resistant way to manage milestone data, reducing risks like copy-paste mistakes. Let’s open Jama Connect and learn how to enable this strategy in the tool.

The first step is to ensure Categories is enabled within the project. An organization administrator will enter the admin tab within their Jama Connect instance. From there, they will navigate to the category section of the tab and turn the toggle that enables Categories. After Categories is enabled, the administrator will begin to develop the specific Categories that will enable the team to track each milestone. The administrator will add a system development phase category by selecting add and populating the name. This will serve as the parent category, which the rest of the lifecycle milestones will be grouped underneath. From here, the administrator will add the rest of the milestones as individual Categories and move them under the system development phase parent.

It is a best practice in this case to use the move functionality rather than the copy functionality to keep the Categories trees simple and clean. Additionally, when complying with regulatory standards and requirements, it is best to clearly align your milestone. The milestones used throughout the rest of this example are derived from the ARP-4754B and its systems requirements process. This method can be expanded to any number of other regulatory docu ments as well. With all of the milestones created, the administrator has one last step to complete, assigning the parent system development phase category to the appropriate projects or enabling it to be globally accessible.

RELATED: Jama Connect for Air, Land, Sea, and Space Datasheet

Knowles: After your team’s organization administrator has completed the creation of the milestone Categories, it is time to implement within the project. First, a user will go into a project and begin to categorize components, sets, and folders that belong to each of the Categories. It is easiest to categorize top-down from components, sets, and folders, and then to batch manage Categories of each of the item types within the logical organizers. With the organizers categorized, the user can then manage the Categories of the individual items within each organizer.

Now that the hard work is done, it is time to harvest the fruits of the labor. The simplest way to do this is to open the Categories tab in the project and select any of the milestone Categories. With one click, the user will see all the items associated with that milestone. However, this isn’t the only way to visualize the information. A best practice for viewing Categories is to set up filters. By developing filters that narrow in on the information due at the upcoming milestone, a team can target that work and ensure it is effectively completed. Once a filter is created, the user can even utilize it to narrow down the project’s explorer by right-clicking on the filter and selecting apply filter to explorer. This will automatically sort the explorer to only display the information within the specific filter. Additionally, a team can use this filtering to help expedite exports or reports related to this narrowed down amount of information.

RELATED: Innovating Aviation with Jama Connect and Vertical Aerospace

Knowles: At Jama Software, we strive to ensure our customers are able to successfully implement and develop their products through the use of Jama Connect. Lifecycle milestones are no small feat, and the team here at Jama Software knows that. Creating a user-friendly and maintainable approach to developing and tracking data due at each lifecycle milestone is the driving force behind this Jama Connect features inside. By tracking data deliverables for lifecycle milestones in Jama Connect with Categories, a team will increase transparency, reduce the potential for error, and improve their data delivery process at Lifecycle Milestones. Through simple organization administration setup, a team can quickly align the work they are developing in Jama Connect to lifecycle milestones and improve their current processes. To find out more about tracking developmental milestones with Categories in Jama Connect, please visit our website at jamasoftware.com.

To view more Jama Connect Features in Five topics, visit:
Jama Connect Features in Five Video Series

In this blog, we overview our customer story, “Innovating Aviation with Jama Connect® and Vertical Aerospace.”

Vertical Aerospace Achieves New Heights with Jama Connect^®

Vertical Aerospace is revolutionizing the aviation industry with sustainable, cutting-edge aircraft like the VX4. To meet ambitious goals and regulatory demands, they turned to Jama Connect. By integrating this powerful platform, Vertical Aerospace achieved seamless certification compliance, improved collaboration, and accelerated their innovation process. With Jama Connect’s Live Traceability™ and intelligent project management capabilities, they’ve streamlined complex workflows and stayed ahead in an industry demanding nothing less than first-rate precision and speed.

Discover how Vertical Aerospace transformed their development process and realized their vision for sustainable aviation.

Key Benefits Vertical Aerospace Experienced:

• Smooth Certification Compliance: Simplified handling of configuration changes.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Merged data for smarter decisions.
• Streamlined Workflow: Eliminated bottlenecks for efficiency.
• Tailored Flexibility: Customized tools for specific needs.
• Faster Innovation: Delivered results with expert support.

Watch the video HERE or click below to see how Jama Connect can help your team succeed.

RELATED: Jama Connect for Airborne Systems

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Kirsty Boyd: Here at Vertical, we are pioneering electric aviation. We’re transforming how the world moves, and through that, we’ve created the VX4. The VX4 is a masterclass in eVTOL aircraft built specifically for sustainable travel and the use case in order to move people faster, better, leaner, more efficiently. For certification, we have to be very black and white. We have to really understand our limitations, our performance of our aircraft. The decisions in the design process that go into those solutions needs to be very well understood. And as you go through the process, things change. Configuration management is a massive part of what we try and do, and we have to be able to prove to the regulator that we’ve identified what those changes are, we’ve dealt with them in an appropriate way, and that we’ve got traceability from top to tail of that.

Karl Mulcahy: So Jama Software is the name of our company, and Jama Connect is the name of our platform. Our platform helps customers to embrace live traceability across the product development lifecycle and ensure that innovation succeeds. It’s a collaborative platform to bring everybody together to make sure that we combine data sources and intelligently make better decisions about our projects, to help you identify gaps in your traceability, to help remove bottlenecks, but ultimately to help bring your industry expertise to companies like Vertical Aerospace and help realize their innovation faster.

Kirsty Boyd: Vertical understood that we needed requirements management in order to certify the platform. And so we did a trade study to analyze different tools that were available in industry. We were looking at cost, efficiency, how flexible they were, how we could tailor them, and we down-selected Jama Connect.

Karl Mulcahy: So Jama Connect helps to bring our industry expertise to forefront. And what that means is we can help provide common ways of working that we’ve used with other clients and working with industry bodies to help streamline compliance or certification mandates.

Kirsty Boyd: We’re trying to do something completely and utterly new here. We don’t have an option for second-rate. We have to use incredibly intelligent partnering in order to meet our timescales, our deadlines, our technology advancement. We don’t have a choice but to go for first-rate partnering.

Karl Mulcahy: Personally, I’m very proud to work with Vertical Aerospace. It’s something that’s brand new in terms of the industry. I know Vertical are at the forefront of the industry. My little boy does ask me a lot what I do for a living. I tell him I work with rockets and planes and to show him this maybe at some point, I’m sure he’s going to be very excited to see it. And maybe one day, he’ll ride in one too.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Aerospace

In this blog, we recap The New ARP4754B and Techniques in Jama Connect for Airborne Systems Whitepaper.

The New ARP4754B and Techniques in Jama Connect^® for Airborne Systems

ARP4754B, released on December 20, 2023, is a standard from SAE International that provides recommendations for the development of civil aircraft and systems, focusing on ensuring safety and compliance with regulations. It covers the entire aircraft development cycle, from system requirements through verification and validation. The latest revision includes new methods for safety analysis, such as Model-Based Safety Analysis (MBSA) and Cascading Effects Analysis (CEA). It is mandatory for all aircraft and systems worldwide, including emerging eVTOLs and UAVs, to demonstrate compliance with aviation regulations. This guideline aligns with ARP4761A, which was released on the same date, for safety assessment processes and offers increased flexibility in selecting validation and verification methods.

ARP4754B Applied in Jama Connect for Airborne Systems

ARP4754B and ARP4761A are both crucial guidelines, and the alignment between the two new versions has been enhanced to streamline development and safety assessments. In addition to the inclusion of the two new safety analysis methods, ARP4754B now places a stronger emphasis on identifying and mitigating unintended behaviors. It now includes consensus methods for demonstrating compliance within the development planning process and has also enhanced its flexibility in validation and verification.

Jama Connect can be used throughout the system development process as the primary system to manage the requirements and full product traceability. Figure 1 from ARP4754B outlines the relationships between the lifecycle and integral processes, which provide guidelines for safety assessment, electronic hardware and software lifecycle processes, and the system development process described herein.

There are always numerous ways to tailor the use of Jama Connect. Here’s how the updates to ARP4754B influence requirements management and how our Airborne solution is pre-configured to support them.

1: Adoption of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

• MBSE Integration: Updates encourage the use of MBSE to handle the increasing complexity of aircraft systems.
• Modeling Languages: Use of modeling languages like SysML to create detailed system models that include requirements, behavior, and structure.

Jama Connect for Airborne Systems Model-Based Techniques

• Model-Driven Requirements: Requirements are captured and managed within the Jama Connect data model, providing requirements management techniques that support model-based representations. The Solution comes pre-configured with element types that correspond to the levels of requirements called out in ARP4754B, function elements, WBS, verifications and validations, and safety-related elements. Jama Connect constrains the data to follow the traceability rules which enable rapid analysis, automated trace matrix generation, and querying and reporting.

• Synchronization of Models and Textual Requirements: Ensuring consistency between textual requirements and model-based representations requires synchronization mechanisms. Jama Connect is often used in conjunction with SysML tools and all leading vendors offer native integrations.

Figure 2: Model-based elements replace documents and the Jama Connect for Airborne Systems’ traceability schema maintains consistency.

RELATED: A Path to Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) with Jama Connect

2. Enhanced Integration of Safety and Requirements Management

• Safety-Driven Requirements: The updates emphasize integrating safety assessments directly into the requirements management process. This means that safety considerations become a foundational aspect of requirement definition and management.
• Iterative Feedback Loop: There is a stronger focus on creating an iterative process where safety analysis results inform requirement updates, and changes in requirements trigger reassessment of safety analyses.

Jama Connect for Airborne Systems Safety & Requirements Management Techniques:

• Traceable Within the Model: The outputs from safety analyses are captured and managed directly in Jama Connect. Our Airborne Systems solution provides the data model for a consistent trace and data strategy between safety, requirements, and tests.
• Requirements Annotation: Requirements have built-in attributes for safety-related information, such as hazard classifications and safety integrity levels.
• Tool Integration: Jama Connect integrates seamlessly with safety analysis tools such as ANSYS Medini, the LDRA tool suite and others to ensure seamless data flow and traceability between safety assessments and requirements.

Figure 3: Jama Connect for Airborne Systems solution on the left and SAE ARP4754B (page 102) on the right.

RELATED: Cybersecurity in the Air: Addressing Modern Threats with DO-326A

3. Improved Traceability Requirements

• Bidirectional Traceability: Enhanced emphasis on maintaining bidirectional traceability between requirements, design artifacts, implementation, and verification activities.
• Traceability to Safety Objectives: Requirements must be directly linked to safety objectives and hazard analyses derived from updated safety assessment processes.

Jama Connect for Airborne Systems Solution Techniques:

• Robust Traceability Matrices: The solution comes preconfigured with views and filters required by ARP4754B. These sophisticated traceability matrices that map requirements to design elements, test cases, and safety analyses are also exportable. The Airborne Systems solution has out-of-the-box export templates that can also be tailored.
• Automated Traceability: Instead of authoring content and then creating a trace to its related content after the fact, use the “Add Related” functionality built into Jama Connect. This use of automated trace creation to manage traceability reduces the risk of human error and improves efficiency.

Figure 4: Constrained set of data choices ensures users create consistent traces.

We’ve shared 3 of the 6 ways Jama Connect’s Airborne Solution supports ARP4754B influence requirements management.
Want the full picture? Download the whitepaper to explore them all!

The New ARP4754B and Techniques in Jama Connect for Airborne Systems Whitepaper

2025 Expert Predictions for Aerospace and Defense: AI, Sustainability, and the Next Frontier

Aerospace and defense are at the cusp of revolutionary changes, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, sustainable technologies, and digital transformation.

In part four of our annual predictions series, Vance Hilderman, CEO at AFuzion and Jama Software’s industry experts Cary Bryczek , Director of Solutions & Consulting; Karl Mulcahy, Global Sales Manager of Aerospace & Defense and Matt Macias, General Manager of Aerospace & Defense share their insights on the trends, challenges, and innovations shaping the future of aerospace and defense.

From the integration of AI in autonomous systems to the adoption of digital twins for operational efficiency and the pursuit of sustainable practices, these insights offer a glimpse into the opportunities and disruptions that lie ahead. Whether it’s navigating cybersecurity challenges or adapting to shifting geopolitical conditions, this year’s predictions provide a roadmap for industry leaders to thrive in 2025 and beyond.

We like to stay on top of trends in other industries as well. Read our predictions for Industrial & Consumer Electronics (ICE) HERE, Automotive HERE, and Semiconductor HERE – Plus, stay tuned for future topics, including Medical Device & Life Sciences, and AECO.

Editor’s Note: Responses reflect a mix of British and American English, depending on the respondent.

Question 1 – With the rising integration of AI, machine learning (ML), and autonomous systems, how do you foresee these technologies reshaping aerospace and defense operations? What are the most promising applications and potential challenges?

Vance Hilderman: AI & ML are already used for ground planning, flight plan optimization, flight deck monitoring, and assists. Militaries are using AI onboard UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and fighter aircraft but real-time AI on commercial aircraft is not yet allowed for safety-related operations.

Cary Bryczek: We will see an explosion in systems engineering utilizing AI. AI will not only be used to write requirements but decompose the requirements into lower-level requirements, create architecture models and establish traceability throughout. It’s beginning to happen right now! AI assistants for systems engineers will create enormous time savings so the actual engineering can be performed.

Karl Mulcahy: AI/ML I’m sure is of interest to these companies to make internal development practices more efficient, but also to enhance their offerings e.g., AI monitoring for better insights/decision making on a battlefield.

However, with ongoing security aspects a constant concern for sensitive projects within the defence world particularly, it may require more maturity and capabilities within customer environments for internal efficiency gains.

Matt Macias: The aviation industry is already demonstrating prototypes leveraging AI and autonomous operation with a large number of new and existing companies developing transformational vehicles to provide new ways for people and goods to utilize airborne mobility’s advantages. There is a strong desire to bring the consumer faster, safer and more cost-effective ways to travel. We see many new startups and innovative ideas in the work, which is very exciting. We also see a great rise in the pursuit of novel, innovative cyber-system approaches and new vehicle designs, propulsion and operations.

In the defense world we see AI/Autonomous systems enabling disruptive changes in the systems and total architectures utilized for security. These new technologies are enabling breakthroughs in new missions and exposing unexpected vulnerabilities. We saw this clearly in Ukraine with the successful use of inexpensive, modified consumer drones defeating far more expensive systems. We also see this in the changes and cancelations of some larger DOD systems programs, where there appears to be a shift in focus to very different, lower-cost systems. For example, drones that operate in a “constellation” of unique, adaptable, or “swarms” of “expendable” or essentially single-use systems that can potentially overwhelm more traditional manned or legacy systems. This is not only changing the approaches to military strategy, but it is revolutionizing the development of tomorrow’s military systems, leading (as in commercial aviation) to an explosion of new ideas and new programs. We also see a rapid growth of disruptive companies taking market share from traditional defense contractors.

All in all, this is a very exciting time for anyone who is interested in aviation, space and defense innovation.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Aerospace

Question 2 – As a follow-up question: Do you have any concerns or anticipate any negative impacts as it pertains to AI & ML?

Hilderman: When used on the flight deck for real-time flight controls, it needs to be certified which is not yet possible for commercial aviation. We’re working on this.

Bryczek: I would say none to be honest. The technology is there to protect intellectual property. Perhaps the only concern I have is do we have the energy infrastructure ready to drive some of the computing power behind it all.

Macias: Currently, the most immediate negative impacts of AI & ML is the disruption of well-established commercial markets and in the case of defense, the unexpected vulnerability of military systems that we have invested heavily into ensure our security.

We don’t know yet how advanced air mobility systems might change the flow of people and goods around our cities, but it is likely that not likely in 2025. In the mid-term future, we will see disruptions as we seek new norms, such as increased noise, safety challenges, privacy challenges, etc. We can also see that the major militaries of the world are very concerned about countering the asymmetric threats autonomous systems pose to our larger defense platforms, likely to accelerate as AI is applied in the future.

Question 3 – As global demand for sustainable practices intensifies, what innovations in product design, materials, or manufacturing processes do you think will most significantly impact sustainability efforts in aerospace and defense?

Hilderman: eVTOL. [Editor’s note: Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft are a type of VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) vehicle that use electric power for vertical takeoff, landing, and hovering. Unlike traditional VTOLs, eVTOLs rely solely on electric propulsion.]

Bryczek: We are going to continue to see more research and development efforts into alternative geological materials to mitigate the need to use rare earth elements. Systems will need to be redesigned, or new systems built altogether that utilize different materials. It’s not just global political unrest that is driving this but also socio-environmental resistance to the mining/extraction process that ruin the environment.

Mulcahy: Better collaboration across teams using tools to capture outcomes, integrate data sets, and ensure better decision-making/more efficient ways of incorporating science and research into the manufacture of products.

Macias: Aerospace and Defense is an industry that has struggled greatly with achieving solutions for sustainability. A significant innovation focus is being applied to this ongoing challenge. We can see major positive impacts already in more efficient structures (increased use of carbon fiber composites and advanced designs) and advancement in the efficiency of traditional propulsion systems. In work and over the horizon there is a strong desire to harness advanced, model-based design approaches (including AI, generative design, MDO, MBSE), and advanced manufacturing automations (3D printing, advanced robotics, etc.) to enable dramatic innovations that will increase the efficiency of flight and other operations.

However, what the industry most dearly seeks is a sustainable power source for A&D systems. This will have great value as these systems consume a great deal of energy and in the case of defense systems, the cost of getting fuel to the point of need is extremely high. The challenges of electrification, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), hydrogen propulsion, etc. continue to be a major focus of the A&D industry but also continue to present very significant challenges of affordability, reliability, power density/weight, and the logistics of fuel delivery.

Question 4 – Cybersecurity remains a top priority in aerospace and defense. What proactive steps do you believe the industry should take to strengthen security measures, particularly in software development and data management for connected and autonomous systems?

Hilderman: Mandate formal usage of DO-326A and ED-202A for cybersecurity within Avionics.

Bryczek: We already have terrific security policies and guidelines as Vance has pointed out that both the US and Europe have crafted. Developers need to be held accountable to follow security by design and to leverage zero-trust architecture. Still too often do I see security performed as an afterthought.

Macias: Security assurance is critical as we advance our use of autonomous systems and integrated data networks. This is and will remain a subject of constant focus, priority and challenge. The application of careful and advanced cybersecurity approaches must be a primary focus of all parts of the A&D system lifecycle including IP protection and security in operational data. As our systems become more intelligent and as the leverage is greater and greater computing power, this will only increase.

Question 5 – Given the shift toward digital transformation, what role do you see digital twins and simulation technologies playing in enhancing operational efficiency, project accuracy, and training in aerospace and defense?

Hilderman: Aircrafts are increasingly automated meaning less pilot involvement which means less onboard “practice;” this means simulation-based training is even more important.

Mulcahy: With more complex products being designed and worked across companies to deliver a larger product/initiative, going digital will be important to ensure alignment.

It will be important to ensure ways to share data seamlessly across tools to understand wider impacts, relationships and identify risks at an earlier stage.

Macias: The A&D industry is seeking the total usage of comprehensive digital twins that harness simulations in near real-time to instruct all aspects of a system’s lifecycle. Simulation driven, model-based development when harmonized into a comprehensive digital twin will enable dramatic breakthroughs in program efficiency, quality, and innovative capabilities. Because of the dramatic increase in ability of the engineering teams to cycle through massive numbers of virtual design and operational scenarios leading companies are enabling dramatic improvements in optimization and deep insights into the function of the designed systems early and throughout ongoing design changes.

This will extend to every aspect of the lifecycle, first into manufacturing and sustainment/service, mission development and operations health monitoring. We can envision a future where every operation of a system/vehicle is both simulated before it happens and after to assess the most efficient operation and the overall health of the system, safety of its occupants/environment. This can also have a significant impact on sustainability if the digital twin is harnessed to optimize operations for minimum energy consumption and maximize life of the system.

RELATED: Cybersecurity in the Air: Addressing Modern Threats with DO-326A

Question 6 – How do you anticipate changing geopolitical conditions and regulatory demands influencing the development of next-generation aerospace and defense products? What strategies should industry leaders consider to remain agile and compliant?

Hilderman: Defense demands will only grow; Europe will need to greatly increase spending, and USA will need to counter increased China spending.

Bryczek: In the defense industry, meeting the mission requirements and providing capabilities quickly to the warfighter trumps regulatory safety compliance requirements. Since there is no “certification” activity as in civilian aerospace systems, there is less burden on development practices. I see very little regulatory changes that will greatly impact defense. On the civilian side, regulations continue to evolve still very slowly. Leaders need to remain agile with their business strategy and align with what the political conditions offer. If there is a way to morph your product to a different market; then be bold and make it happen.

Mulcahy: With the rise of more worldwide conflicts, especially in Europe and the Middle East, more countries are spending more of their GDP on defence spending.

In today’s world, defense now goes more than just weapons, but also into space, cyber security and of course ensuring systems are secure and reliable.

New threats require new solutions to help mitigate these threats. That’s where more companies will develop more solutions and start-ups will emerge.

We often hear of a grey area in the UAV world in terms of regulations, but with more focus on the SORA (Specific Operations Risk Assessment) / SAIL (Safety Assessment Integrity Level,) it will be interesting to see what standards emerge with more civilian/military uses for UAVs for both attack and defence purposes.

Macias: As the broader world adjusts to an accelerated rate of change, we will need to introduce innovative solutions faster and leverage solutions from global partners. This will demand secure, virtual collaboration methods, new ways of joint development while protecting IP and data security, and new standards for safety, communication, and joint operations. Industry leaders should continue to seek secure, virtual collaboration methods that can bring global/multi-disciplinary teams together and ensure harmonized efforts.

Question 7 – Are there any additional insights you have regarding predictions, events, or trends you anticipate happening in 2025 and beyond?

Hilderman: Demand for engineers is greater than supply and this will only worsen.

Mulcahy: More innovation in the UAV / Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) markets, but also more focus on the security of these solutions and the supporting infrastructure and regulations. It will be interesting to see how this combines with AI to develop fully autonomous and intelligent UAVs for civilian/military use cases. The need for larger companies to become more digital, deliver faster, and streamline operations will continue to be a focus.

Macias: The recent past has shown that innovative concepts are accelearating at such a high pace that we are continuously being surprised and amazed at new possibliities and impacts. The industry as a whole must seek faster awareness, greater agility and increase creativity to respond, leverage, and compete in the face of such dynamic times for Aerospace and Defense systems.

In this blog, we recap our webinar, “The New ARP4754B: Tips for Engineers & Quality Teams” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

Navigating the updates to ARP4754B can be challenging.

Understanding new safety analysis methods, validation and verification flexibility, and strategies to mitigate unintended behaviors is crucial for advancing aerospace development and ensuring compliance.

Join us as Cary Bryczek, Director of Aerospace and Defense Solutions at Jama Software, shares practical tips for engineers and quality teams to navigate the most impactful changes in ARP4754B.

Gain Insights On:

• Changes from ARP4754A to ARP4754B
• Model-Based Safety Analysis (MBSA) and Cascading effects Analysis (CEA)
• Identifying and mitigating unintended system behaviors
• Tying your safety analyses to requirements in Jama Connect
• The updates to verification and validation methods

Below is an abbreviated transcript and a recording of our webinar.

The video above is a preview of this webinar – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

The New ARP4754B: Tips for Engineers & Quality Teams

Cary Bryczek: We’re going to have fun talking about the changes from ARP4754B revision A to revision B. We’ll spend some time a little bit more deeply on its emphasis on model-based design and safety. I’ll talk about enhanced integration of safety and requirements management and some of the changes to validation and verification. At the end, we’ll have some time for Q&A.

A quick refresher on what ARP4754B is. Its title is Guidelines for Development of Civil Aircraft. It’s an industry guideline developed by SAE International that provides recommended practices for the development of complex civil aircraft and systems. It outlines a structured systems engineering process for the integrating of hardware, software, and human factors to ensure safety, reliability, and performance across the system lifecycle. The document emphasizes traceability, verification, and validation from initial concept through to certification with a strong focus on meeting regulatory safety and design assurance standards.

ARP4754B also aligns and is used in conjunction with other key aerospace standards like DO-178C and DO-254 offering detailed guidance on how to meet safety and certification requirements in the context of modern integrated aircraft systems. ARP4754 revision B is meant to expedite consistency with ARP4761 revision A, the safety assessment process, which was it was released on the same day in December of 2023.

The guideline describes generic aircraft system development process, which establishes a framework for discussing the process. ARP4754B doesn’t imply a preferred method or process, nor does it imply a specific organizational structure. At its simplest, it emphasizes the flow down of intended aircraft function through the system requirements management process and allocation of function to systems, subsystems, and hardware and software items.

Integral processes in the context of 4754B refer to key processes that are interwoven throughout the entire development lifecycle of aerospace systems from concept to design, integration, verification, and certification. Now, these processes ensure that various engineering disciplines, your systems engineering teams, your hardware and software engineering safety are fully integrated, aligned, and contribute to the overall success of the project.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution for Aerospace

Bryczek: This diagram from 4754B outlines the key stages of the aircraft system development process and provides a framework for understanding how safety is integrated into each stage. The safety are the ones that are in the lightest white or gray. The standard approach ensures that the safety risks are identified, analyzed, and mitigated early in the design process, and are continuously assessed throughout the system lifecycle.

I want to point out that lifecycle phases really are iterative and independent. 4754B emphasizes that the phases of system development aren’t strictly linear. For example, design and development may loop back to earlier phases such as the requirement’s definition. If issues are found during those later stages, sort of this iterative approach ensures that safety concerns can be identified and corrected throughout the lifecycle.

You’ll also notice that safety and hazard analysis is integrated throughout the development phases. Safety assessments are continuous activities throughout the development process. Safety considerations such as your functional hazard assessments, your fault tree analysis to your cascading effects analysis are embedded within multiple phases, particularly the design, development, and verification phases.

Let’s get to the meat of what has changed. So ARP4754B builds on the foundation laid by 4754A but offers a much more structured, detailed, and modern approach to developing complex aerospace systems. This is in response to the increasing complexity of our modern aircraft, tighter safety requirements, and evolving certification processes, particularly the need for rigorous system integration, traceability, and safety assessment practices. It provides greater clarity around the development assurance levels and how they relate to the overall system and safety requirements.

RELATED: Jama Connect Airborne Systems

Bryczek: While A provided a basic framework, B refines the application of DALs throughout the system lifecycle. B expands the understanding of development assurance levels in the context of aircraft and system development, and it places a greater emphasis on safety, traceability, and integration across the lifecycle stages. The updated standard provides a more comprehensive guidance on managing the DALs and aligning the safety assessments with the system requirements, and it ensures that development processes are rigorous enough to meet the increasing complexity of the modern aircraft systems.

With the increased use of model-based techniques, 4754B highlights the benefits of using models to perform safety assessments. It recognizes that simulation-based safety analysis can help engineers assess the safety of complex integrated systems much more efficiently by modeling different failure scenarios and responses, so the standard supports using simulation tools to model those failure scenarios and validate the robustness of safety-critical systems. And this all just improves the accuracy of safety analysis, and it helps identify the potential issues earlier in the design process.

THIS HAS BEEN A PREVIEW OF OUR WEBINAR, WATCH IT IN ITS ENTIRETY:
The New ARP4754B: Tips for Engineers & Quality Teams