INCOSE NE Membership March 2023 Monthly Meeting: WebEx

Agenda: 

6:30-7:15 PM:  Invited Speaker

7:15-7:30 PM:  Q&A and Open Discussion

7:30-8:00 PM: Chapter Business

Invited Speaker:

Dr. Eric Dano, Associate Professor of Practice at George Washington University’s Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Department (EMSE)

Title: 

A Primer on ConOps Development

Abstract:  

The Concept of Operations, or ConOps, are critical to architecting and developing robust, transdisciplinary systems.  However, in most government proposals the ConOps, a required element of the Request for Proposal (RFP), is a short paragraph typically giving an overview of just the operational ConOps.   But, what about the supportability ConOp(s)?  Isn’t the Operations and Support (O&S) phase 60% of the lifecycle cost of a system?  Clearly these critical elements will need to be called out in a combination of ConOps and associate system level support requirements so that the architect can properly derive an architecture.  

The same could be said for system attributes/value statements such as modularity.  Is the customer looking for Modularity in Design (MID), and corresponding Modularity in Production (MIP) like auto companies, or are they looking for Modularity in Use (MIU) like defense systems?  This talk will describe the development of a complete set of ConOps so that a robust transdisciplinary architecture can be derived for a system.

Bio: 

Dr. Eric Dano is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he majored in physics, and later served in the United States Marine Corps as an Electronics Counter Measures Officer (ECMO) flying in the EA-6B Prowler. Eric received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in Electrical Engineering and Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, studying the experimental radar backscatter from deep ocean breaking waves.  Upon graduation, he took a job at Sanders/BAE Systems in Nashua, NH where he worked for over 25 years.  While at BAE, he served as System Architect/Technical Director on multiple advanced land, sea, and airborne based systems.  

Dr. Dano also served as the lead of the System Architecture Community of Practice and led the development of the Chief Engineers in the CEMA and PS business areas.  In Fall of 2022, Eric left BAE Systems to take an Associate Professor of Practice teaching position in George Washington University’s Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Department (EMSE).  His research interests include improvement of complex engineered systems through robust system architecture, system thinking, model-based systems architecture/ engineering, and improvement of system engineering practices.  

Dr. Dano has been an INCOSE member since 2011, is a past president of the New England chapter and participates on numerous INCOSE working groups.