A conceptual approach to support through-life business transformation in an aerospace and defence context

Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) is a complex evolving domain that requires a new approach to better understand the different viewpoints, models and practices within various enterprises to support a future conceptual model development. This research applied Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to identify the activities necessary to transform an existing aerospace and defence business model to one that would support TLCM. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts and stakeholders across a range of different relevant functions and organisations to identify the activities required to support conceptual model development. A bottom-up approach was used to provide a TLCM ontology and a top-down approach was proposed to develop the root definitions derived from the experts´ perception of TLCM. The benefits and drawbacks of using SSM including the human-activity system and mapping the activities onto a TLCM cube (architectural) model are discussed.