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Defense & Government
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Defense Prime Starting a Phase B Program

Challenge

The Problem

A defense prime contractor was kicking off a Phase B satellite program with 1,200+ requirements flowing down from the government customer. Their legacy process involved DOORS for requirements, Excel for budgets, and PowerPoint for phase gate reviews. Three different tools, three different sources of truth, and a six-month procurement cycle just to get licenses.

Solution

How SMAD Portal Helped

The team deployed SMAD Portal as a single platform for requirements, budgets, risk, and phase gates. Requirements were imported via CSV in the first session. The traceability matrix was built as they linked requirements to subsystems. Budget allocations and risk register entries were connected to the same requirements, so when a requirement changed, the downstream impact was visible immediately.

Results

Outcomes

  • Requirements import and initial traceability completed in one week instead of six
  • Single source of truth for requirements, budgets, and risks
  • Suspect link detection caught 23 downstream impacts from a single interface change
  • Phase gate readiness visible to the entire program in real time

"We spent more time on requirements analysis and less time on tool administration. That is what mission engineering should look like."

Systems Engineering LeadDefense Prime Contractor

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