Improving and Increasing the Efficiency of the P-8A Test Work Description (TWD) Process

This study’s purpose was to identify opportunities to improve the P-8A test working description (TWD) process in support of the P-8A test program. This study researched other NAVAIR test programs that used a contractor and government integrated test approach. This study determined the proper balance of improvements to support the approval of TWDs to keep pace with the testing. The process was functionally decomposed to look for process redundancies, choke points and out-of-sequence sub-processes. Two changes were identified and implemented that reduced the process from five phases to four phases. Corel’s iGrafx software was selected to model the process. The model varied TWD development time and test team resource level to analyze alternative TWD development process concepts. Alternatives examined excursions from a baseline condition that was limited by the existing team resource level (the lower bound) to an upper bound that assumed unconstrained resources. The upper bound conditions represented the earliest time the TWDs could be completed. Additional alternatives were analyzed until an “optimal” resource level was found that would support the test program. It is recommended this type of modeling be applied to other test programs and systems engineering processes to improve their efficiency.