Concurrent system engineering in Air Traffic Management: steering the SESAR program

As a “System of Systems” (SoS), Air Traffic Management (ATM) in Europe will be improved by simultaneous and coordinated evolutions of its constituting systems. The SESAR Program aims at reaching an ambitious performance target (for 2020) by developing a large collection of “Operational Improvement Steps” (OIs). This development is achieved by more than 300 projects, themselves involving a number of partners working at their own site throughout Europe. To face this challenge, the SJU supported by EADS through an “industrial support” contract, has organized the management of the contributing projects on some basic principles: -­‐ The SESAR Program is Performance-driven: this principle gives priority to developments that demonstrate significant performance gains within Key Performance Areas (KPA). -­‐ The programs monitors the maturity progress of the constituting OIs on a maturity scale (V1, V2, V3 maturity levels introduced by the European Operational Concept Validation Methodology) and revisits their priority in accordance with their maturity status. -­‐ The achievement of each maturity level corresponds to a phase, and the transition from a maturity level to the next is assessed on the basis of maturity criteria. -­‐ Each maturity criterion shall be demonstrated though evidences, relying on validation results. -­‐ Maturity criteria reflect the confidence that the Requirements attached to OIs will be met. In particular, the confidence in meeting the performance 1 The Key Performance Areas are: Safety ; Security ; Capacity ; Cost effectiveness; Efficiency ; Environmental sustainability ; Flexibility ; Interoperability ; Participation ; Predictability;