The objective for a NASA contractor, the performing organization in this case study, is to develop and deliver the next generation space suit to NASA, the customer in this case study, against a radically different level of customer expectation from previous years. In 2019, the administration had proposed a return to the moon, thus transforming and changing the system context of the current, next generation space suit in addition to pushing schedule expectations forward two years. The purpose of this dissertation will serve as a case study in two specific areas with qualitative and quantitative analyses regarding a new process and approach to (i) project lifecycle development and (ii) requirements engineering with the intent that if utilized, these tools may have contributed to improvements across the project in terms of meeting cost, scope, budget and quality while appropriately accounting for risk management. The procedure entails a research method in which the current state of the project, current state of the art and the identified systems engineering challenges are evaluated and iterative models are tempered through development by continual improvements by engineering evaluation of engineers on the project. The current results have produced (i) a prototype to project lifecycle development method via agile, Lean and Scrum hybrid implementations into a Traditional Waterfall framework and (ii) a prototype to requirements engineering scorecard with implementations of FMEA and quantitative analysis to determine root cause identification. Forward work includes customer, performing organization, INCOSE and PMI acceptance.

Speaker Biography

Mr. Cabrera attended Texas Tech where he received undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Mechanical Engineering and then attended University of Houston – Clear Lake and received graduate degrees in Physics and Engineering Management. Currently, he is a PhD Candidate in Systems Engineering at Colorado State. Professionally, he has worked as a robotic operations analyst on Shuttle and ISS operations, an offshore design engineer on an oil rig, a project manager for the treadmill aboard the ISS and currently works as a project manager for the next generation space suit. He has a passion for management, team building, teaching and continual education.