MBSE Adoption: The Messy Reality Nobody Talks About | Laura Hernandez

Описание: Welcome to 'Change by Design,' where we spotlight engineering transformation. Your host, Chad Jackson, features leaders who share their journeys and actionable insights on leadership. This podcast aims to provide inspiration and lessons to help you become a catalyst for progress, fostering effective teamwork and developing successful leaders for the next generation of leaders.

What does it really take to drive change in engineering organizations? In this episode of Change by Design, Chad Jackson sits down with Laura Eterero Hernandez, Director of Digital Engineering at Leidos, to explore what makes a successful change agent—and why it's less about the title and more about translating vision into day-to-day action. They dive into the messy reality of MBSE adoption, including a program that ran $68 million over budget by skipping systems engineering upfront, and how live model-based design reviews eliminated weeks of back-and-forth deliberation. Plus, they discuss where AI and agentic modeling could accelerate MBSE development in the near future.

🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Change Agents Defined: Why change agents aren't defined by titles but by their ability to translate top-level vision into tactical, day-to-day execution
The $68M Lesson: How skipping systems engineering in the first phase of a firm fixed-price contract led to massive cost overruns—and what could have prevented it
MBSE in Practice: How live model-based design reviews cleared a PDR with zero customer actions, saving weeks of traditional document-based deliberation
The "Awkward Phase" of MBSE: Why organizations are caught between model-based capability and document-based contractual requirements—and how that's starting to change
AI for MBSE: How agentic AI could jumpstart models using reference architectures and cut development time dramatically

👇 CHAPTERS:
0:00 – Introduction: Welcome to Change by Design
1:00 – Laura's Background: From Aerospace to Systems Engineering
5:30 – What Is a Change Agent? Defining the Role
10:00 – Traits of Successful Change Agents: Translating Vision to Action
14:00 – Pros and Cons of Being a Change Agent
19:00 – The Overlap: Change Agent, IT, and Day-to-Day Design Roles
24:00 – Systems Engineering Adoption Across the Industry
29:00 – Staffing Systems Engineers: Backgrounds and Experience
34:00 – DBSE vs. MBSE: The Awkward Transition Phase
39:00 – The $68M Lesson: Why Systems Engineering Must Be Bid Upfront
43:00 – MBSE Advantages: Live Design Reviews with Zero Actions
47:00 – MBSE Pitfalls: When You Put Too Much in the Model
51:00 – AI and Agentic Modeling for MBSE
54:00 – Magic Wand: Redesigning U.S. Infrastructure

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED:
Lifecycle Insights: https://www.lifecycleinsights.com/

📌 ABOUT CHANGE BY DESIGN:
Change by Design shines a light on engineering transformation—helping organizations navigate complexity, minimize risk, and maximize value in their digital transformation journeys. Hosted by Chad Jackson, Chief Analyst & CEO of Lifecycle Insights.

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