Agile and DevOps practices drive towards faster delivery and efficient incorporation of feedback, but sometimes struggle to maintain a common understanding of product vision and implementation. Model-Based Systems Engineering helps to frame the architectural underpinnings of a system, tying the implementation back to desired functionality, but when allowed to go stale, the models can quickly lose their benefit and turn the initial modeling effort into waste. Agile and MBSE are sometimes viewed as competing approaches, when in fact they can be used synergistically to support each other....
Ken Kubo
Director, Engineering Technologists
Northrop Grumman
Ken Kubo is Director of the Engineering Technologists group at Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Payload and Ground Systems, Strategic Force Programs and is also an active member of Northrop Grumman's Enterprise Lean-Agile Center of Excellence. He has over 30 years of service with Northrop Grumman, with experience in software development, systems engineering, and satellite operations. His primary area of focus has been satellite ground systems, building the bigger picture from individual bits of data. Thus, he’s naturally drawn to using Agile methods and information radiators to drive programmatic transparency. Ken supports project teams making their Agile transitions as coach and trainer.