The Board of Directors has appointed Dick Kitterman of Northrop Grumman Corporation as Deputy Technical Director. Dick will assume this role at the International Workshop in January.
Dick Kitterman leads risk management on a major program at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. He has previously managed his own consulting business and worked for other major aerospace contractors doing systems engineering and project management. Prior to that, he worked in the commercial sector. His basic degree is in Physics, with advanced degrees in Business Administration and Systems Engineering and doctoral work in Information Technology.
Dick is a long time member of INCOSE and his service includes Co-chair of the Risk Management Working Group, HRA Chapter Membership Director, Member Board Representative for Region V , founder of the Latin America and Caribbean Initiative, lead editor of Vision 2020, version 2.0, and liaison from INCOSE to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), where he is a member of Working Group 7 addressing systems engineering life cycle standards. He has also organized and been on panels, as well as authoring and reviewing papers.
Dick’s initial efforts as Deputy Technical Director will focus on aligning INCOSE’s technical resources with its vision, strategy and plan. The direction he will take is along the lines of:
- Closing the loop with the organized technical resources, and particularly the working groups, by engaging them to both critique and contribute to the maturation of the emerging Vision 2020 and our strategy. This may be done by an ongoing series of “working group caucuses,” among other means, including closing the loop with INCOSE’s top leadership and other key stakeholders.
- Ensuring that the organized technical resources efforts also translate our vision and strategy into projects resulting in products that are both technically excellent and aligned with INCOSE’s overall direction. The use of caucuses will support part of this, but there is also a need support the organized technical resources as they move into a consistent internal framework of how they do business; how projects are formed, how leadership is determined, our role in standards, accountability, etc.
As a long time INCOSE member who has contributed in a range of roles, Dick appreciates that neither of these steps are easy, nor will they be accomplished without care and patience. However, as they unfold they will contribute markedly to INCOSE’s role as the foremost technical authority on systems engineering.