The U.S. Army Project Manager Soldier Training (PM ST) office has established a legacy of innovation based on the Product Line Engineering methodology to manage a complex System of Systems architecture for live training systems. PM ST has invested in long term initiatives to evolve the Live Training Transformation (LT2) enterprise to meet the future needs of warfighter training. These initiatives resulted in common training capabilities that can expedite the realization of the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) vision as we move from technology exploration efforts to an established foundation of continuously maturing capabilities. Key to this approach is LT2’s community accessible approach to advance their core mission though shared capabilities which reduces the “not invented here” mentality. This enables funding to be applied to specifically high value needs instead of redundant solutions common to all training environments (e.g. performance data collection, training specific message exchanges, position location tracking, data retention, data security. Etc.)
This methodology also allows adjacent programs to benefit from existing baseline and focus on their unique needs, LT2 has demonstrated this with the inclusion of the Integrated Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) Test Environment (ILTE) system. Most importantly by enabling teams to focus on new capabilities, PM ST established a culture focused on achieving long-term objectives. These concepts are evident in the current enterprise architecture that reaches down to the individual and cloud hosted micro-services for Live Training.
In this paper, we will explain the methodology and framework that PM ST established to support continuous incremental improvement across multiple programs and contractors and the remarkable results achieved through this approach. Additionally we will show how to apply this approach to other programs to achieve similar cost avoidance while implementing their long-term vision.