Case study: Agile hardware/firmware/software product line engineering at Rockwell Collins

Rockwell Collins, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is using a product line approach for a family of radios they produce for military and international markets, with an agile systems engineering process tailored individually for synchronized software, firmware, and hardware development. This mixed-discipline engineering group encompasses some 350 employees working on multiple projects simultaneously for multiple customers. The product line approach provides an agile systems target-context for the agile systems engineering process — re-using common product-line hardware, firmware, and software whenever possible, evolving the product line with both internally-funded development and opportunities presented by customer project work, and accommodating special customer needs that grow the knowledge and capability base for potential later use in product-line extension. This article focuses on the mixed-discipline agile systems engineering process reviewed in the September, 2015, INCOSE Agile Systems Engineering Life Cycle Model (ASELCM) discovery workshop, and doesn't address the proprietary strategy and detail of the product line architecture. Notable elements that will be discussed include a parallel evolving product line roadmap as the strategic driving function, a facilitating central relationship-management role for systems engineering, synchronization of mixed engineering disciplines, an enabling infrastructure for agile hardware development, strong opportunity management complimenting traditional risk management, and comparison to the ASELCM Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) pattern.