| The purpose of this study was to document the transition of a military organization to an integrated product team (IPT) environment. The first sections of this paper discuss the mission of the organization and the past organizational and contract support structure. The next section describes the current teams and their functions and the members of the IPTs.;Chapter 3 provides historical background on the Department of Defense migration to the IPT and Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD). Furthermore, qualities, advantages, and applications of cross-functional teams are described in detail.;Analysis methods and the hypothesis are provided in Chapter 4, along with detailed study areas of the hypothesis. Methods used to gather data include a survey and interviews with IPT members.;The results of the analysis, covered in Chapter 5, reveal that the IPT environment has aided teamwork and helped to improve responses for priority tasks. However, there have been several drawbacks in migrating to the IPT environment. Topics discussed include change management, roles and responsibilities, training, succession planning, the IPT charter, leadership and empowerment, and product and process quality.;Chapter 2 discusses the work processes performed in the organization to formally request, provide, and document work. Minor modifications and major modifications are described. Also, the process to resolve network deficiencies is revealed.;Chapter 6 outlines several recommendations to improve the IPT environment and concludes with suggestions for further study. |
