Many Air Force training simulation programs currently encounter integration issues that corrupt test schedules, resulting in late trainer deliveries, trainers fielded with significantly degraded performance, or both. While the implementation and testing of individual hardware and software components generally proceeds as expected, unanticipated problems begin surfacing when subsystem integration begins. Issues cascade as the system proceeds through successive stages of integration and test. Hardware-software integration is rarely completed on the timetable laid out in the Integrated Master Schedule, and subsequent testing often reveals problems that should have been detected earlier. Consequently, trainer programs which had been on-track throughout the entire design phase suddenly stumble, resulting in late delivery and/or unresolved deficiencies. The Training Systems Product Group (TSPG) is frustrated by this problem. There are a number of reasons an integration plan can go awry, and we are able to deal with many of them effectively- but we have never examined our acquisition and development processes to determine and prevent such late breaking problems.

The NTSA Ohio Chapter recently hosted a Technical Forum with Air Force and Industry simulator engineers, to discuss causalities of our integration woes and some possible adjustments the TSPG can make in its acquisition management processes, to reduce the risk of delays. The Forum addressed a set of questions that ranged from identifying the keys to successful integration experiences, to relating integration horror stories. It addressed the addition of formal reviews specifically for integration, and examined how well we execute our current reviews (SRR, PDR, and CDR). This paper summarizes the discussions of the Forum, and identifies specific issues agreed upon by the group, along with initiatives being examined and instituted by the TSPG. It also addresses management strategies useful to both Government and contractor developers to mitigate integration risk in their programs.