Global Communications Systems Research

We provide Engineering Support Services to Program and Project Engineers and Program Management Offices.

1.0          Program/Project Management Support Activities

• Schedule Development and Tracking
• Create high level and detailed Engineering, Procurement and Test Schedules and contribute to the overall development of master Program Schedules
• Monitor and report Project Schedule Performance in terms of  the TERRA Project’s and the RUS’es needs and expectations
• Ensure that there are plans that ensure that the system continues to support existing  customers across all the phases of the project
• Develop Schedule workarounds to ensure that TERRA success criteria are achieved
• Help create and track program budgets.
• Monitor Procurement activities, review RFPs and other documentation for completeness and adherence to the needs of the TERRA Project and the agreement with the  Rural Utilities Service (RUS)
• Schedule meetings with vendors; and support the project engineer in responsibility of evaluate their technologies and capabilities to deliver and to support proffered hardware and software products and services
• Perform a Quality Assurance function by reviewing deliverables against task order agreements, SOWs and other contractual and technical  requirements documents
• Perform technical issue resolution and technical and management liaison; provide direct support to TERRA’s Project Engineer, and perform whatever tasks are required as a member of technical and management teams and committees
• Help provide technical and program liaison between all the TERRA entities including UUI, GCI and the major contractors
• This includes communicating technical issues and attending project review meetings

2.0          Requirements Development and Traceability

• Monitor Activities of contractors, GCI and UUI organizations under existing and future Task Orders to ensure the contractors decisions reflect the best interests of the TERRA (and do not de-scope their activities without reducing their work effort)
• Perform a Quality Assurance function by reviewing any contract or task order deliverables against contractor SOW requirements
• Perform technical issue resolution and technical and management liaison
• Ensure high-level requirements have been developed and documented for all aspects of the TERRA project including Network Management Systems and Operations
• Ensure traceability of all aspects of Design from Requirements
• Create a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) this ensures that high level requirements are implemented in the design and verified in testing

3.0          Procurement Support

• Monitor Procurement activities, review Request for Proposals (RFPs) and other documentation for completeness and adherence to the needs of the TERRA.
• Support vendor meetings; evaluate their technologies and capabilities to deliver and to support proffered hardware and software products and services
• Participate in vendor reviews to ensure that the proposals meet the TERRA’s requirements as furnished in the RFP

4.0          Design Specification and Support

• Review all ‘design specifications”  against requirements to ensure traceability of design from Requirements
• Ensure high-level requirements are constrained by detailed analysis of TERRA’s Concept of Operations (This helps to avoid scope creep)
• Ensuring selected products’ ability to meet design requirements
• Review performance analysis to ensure design will meet performance requirements
• Ensure that the design is feasible, accessible, installable, supportable and maintainable
• Documenting all aspects of the design including its reliability, maintainability and ability to be supported by the Network Management Systems and other Operations Support Systems

5.0          Configuration and Control Management

• Work to ensure that the documentation provides cohesive non-redundant coverage of the technical requirements of the project.
  • Problem/change description

6.0          Test Management

• Create a Program Test Plan for all elements and all phases the TERRA Program that includes:
  • Link, segment and Element Testing
  • End-to-End Testing
  • Acceptance Testing
  • Work with the Project Engineer to ensure that the test plan incorporates the Program’s test philosophy
  • Ensure that the program and project schedules include adequate time for the required testing
  • Work with the Project Engineer to define the required test procedures with pass/fail criteria,
  • Plan for test tool selection, procurement and training.
  • Ensure the creation of test procedures
  • Help create test results database
  • Help coordinate testing activities: Test Execution Management
  • Conduct pre-test and post test reviews of major segment and end-to-end tests
  • Manage the collection, validations and archiving of test results
  • Ensure that test results are reviewed and anomalies reviewed.

7.0          Operations, Logistics and Maintenance

• Monitor changes for their impact on “Concept of Operations
• Create plan for spares and spares positioning
• Ensure that there is a plan for field installation, upgrades and modifications and for tracking the as built baseline
• Depot-level technical support

8.0          Training

• Work with the Project Engineer to create a training plan for all phases of the project including training for installation and test engineers
• Advanced customized technical curriculum development and training: VSAT, MESA, TETRA, Project 25, GSM, CDMA, SIP
• Training: Classroom, on-the-job, computer-based, and Web-based

9.0          Deliverables

• Program Plan: A written description of the Program from beginning to end.
  • Scope, roles and responsibilities, high level technical overview, high level schedules and budgets, high level risk assessment. the sites, the high level technology description – like bandwidth
  • Program Test Plan
    • Test Plans/ Test Procedures
    • Schedules: High Level Program Schedules, Engineering Activities Schedules, Test Schedules, Work Around Schedules.
    • Issue Tracking and Resolution System
    • Engineering Task Order Management Process
    • Engineering drawings
      • Design Specifications
      • Document Trees
      • Drawings Trees
      • Requirements Documents
      • Requirements Traceability Matrix
      • Quality Assurance Process
      • Special Analyses

10.0       Other Tasks:

• Knowledge Capture and Transmission

(Create a process to ensure that the program knowledge gained from development through deployment, test and operations is documented in a way as new people as people leave the program as new people join the knowledge will be available from the old to the new.)

• Cost trade-off analysis
• Failure investigation