The hierarchical, pyramidal approach to managing large, complex enterprises has a long history dating back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The underlying conditions for its development - mass production of commercial goods and the administration of large, but stable operations like railroads - were never particularly applicable to the development of modern space-borne Electro-Optical sensors, and our current approach for applying the pyramid to these sensor programs is the source of major delays, miscommunications, and errors due to the number of handoffs and approval steps required in that process. This paper argues that these drawbacks can be addressed by switching to a concurrent engineering mode of development and management for EO sensor programs, and it has given a top level description of what such a concurrent approach would look like. It has also described some of the obstacles to implementing a concurrent engineering approach within an existing organization that is traditionally organized. It has shown how some of these obstacles might be overcome with the aid of a new integrated performance-driven engineering tool, Comet.rn"One of the most profound consequences of the Industrial Age was the disconnection of workers from products and customers who benefited from their work. Anomie is the sociologist's term to describe the... disconnection and isolation that is endemic to the Industrial Age. The origins of this may be traced to the transition from artisan and peasant to factory worker in the early 19th century. Artisans saw the outcome and knew the purpose of their labor, and it helped give them a sense of identity. Performing an isolated task cannot provide the gratification that comes from closure and a sense of contribution." [2] By moving to a concurrent style of work, we will not only improve our ability to deliver useful products to our customers within the resource constraints we have to work with, but also restore a richness to the working lives of many engineers.
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