Performance collaborative, distributed systems engineering (CDSE) : lessons learned from CDSE enterprises

The United States aerospace and defense budgets are shrinking, resources are scarce and requirements are more demanding: aerospace and defense enterprises are expected to deliver a more capable product in less time and with fewer resources. To achieve this tough mission, the enterprises that comprise the United States aerospace and defense industries must form strategic partnerships and collaborations to utilize their respective resources, knowledge, and expertise to meet their customers' needs. Collaboration, be it between competing companies or within different divisions of the same company, is necessary for the survival of each company and the defense industry. In the past. United States aerospace and defense company relationships consisted mostly of a prime contractor. with sub-contractors providing a specific hardware or software subsystem. as specified by the prime contractor. Today, aerospace and defense company relationships are moving more toward that of "partners" where the previous supplier or sub-contractor for hardware or software subsystems is now sharing in the overall system design and engineering efforts.