A Design Change, Knowledge, and Project Management Flight Simulator for Product and Project Success

Cost overruns and schedule delays are pervasive in complex projects despite the use of systems engineering and traditional project management models and tools. These disciplines can often work in isolation leading to inconsistencies in product information, tracking of design changes, and challenges in decision-making. While the literature proposes theoretical approaches to integrating these disciplines, there does not appear to be a practical approach offered. In response, this article presents a management flight simulator that represents a digital twin of set-based design, design change, knowledge, and agile project management practices. It integrates discipline-specific submodels through key linkages that are derived from the intrinsic properties of a system case study and intangible assets such as knowledge, communication, culture, and process maturity. It captures the techno-socio-economic and cultural factors involved in design change decisions and project management. The simulator provides immediate feedback on whether a change is going to help or disrupt design integrity through the monitoring of system attribute trends and cues. It also provides the impact on lifecycle management curves using a system dynamics submodel. From this feedback, several system, policy, and process levers are available within the simulator for what-if scenarios with the goal to improve product, organizational, and project performance.