The introduction to the book was written by Dr. Zvi Kaplan, former director of the Israel Space Agency.
Prof. Haim Ashad, the father of the Israeli space program. Headed the security space program at the Ministry of Defense for over 30 years, starting from the day it was founded. Haim Ashad currently serves as a tenured professor at a number of satellite and space research institutions and a senior advisor to the Israel Space Agency.
Introduction by Dr. Zvi Kaplan
There is a lot of sense in publishing a book about project management at this time. The technological developments, along with the demand to provide smarter and more complex systems together with optimizing the consumption of resources and shortening development processes, sharpen the need to update the management tools in complex system development projects.
In the 70s of the last century, a process of defense R&D intensification began in the country already a few decades ago. Israel is currently at the forefront of the world in the ability to develop sub-assemblies and weapons and armament systems, and on the side, scientific-security research is also carried out that also affects civilian R&D applications.
The heads of the founding generation clear the stage and the baton of leadership in project management passes to a new generation, hence the importance of this book and others like it as a tool to preserve the lineage.
At this time, it is of great and unique significance that the author presents a collection of interviews with project leaders as well as several senior development managers who belong to the "founders" generation, and who grew up within the defense development systems and initially excelled in their ability as developers and later also in their managerial ability and some of whom are still active in passing on the "legacy" for the next generation.
Mr. Molly Eden, who grew up at Intel in Israel and was promoted to the top of the company in the USA, is without a doubt a senior representative of the generation of "founders", he best describes his transition from focusing on understanding development risks with the aim of reducing them, and later, transitioning to modern R&D and taking risks due to the changing environment and market . The decentralization of knowledge on the one hand, and the increased specialization on the other, require the developers to have multidisciplinary orientation in order to outline a complete picture. And therefore, the ability to lead and lead is of primary importance.
The author interviewed some of the senior leaders of the generation of project leaders who emerged in the defense establishment:
Dr. Yossi Shapira from Raphael - has a wealth of cumulative experience in the development of weapons and currently sees himself as a vocation in technology education that combines scientific principles with the ability to work in a team. In his opinion, the manager must monitor the arrival of the information to the main nodes in the project and synchronize it in such a way that it reaches all the work groups on time. This is the main test of the project leader. The leadership of the project is required for the actual performance to match the requirements of the end customer, and this requires learning lessons and quick implementation during the development process.
Prof. Nino Levy is one of the pioneers in the field of radar development in Israel, being one of the founders of Elta. His insights regarding project management emphasize the need at the very beginning of the project to deepen the understanding of the needs and requirements. It is not necessary that the main project components be specified in their type, but the answer to the systemic requirements as defined in the project specification must be found. This, in addition to developing an understanding of why the chosen route is the preferred one in relation to the alternatives. A prominent topical example he mentions regarding "Iron Dome" is the requirement to break the balance between the low cost of the attacking missile versus the cost of the interceptor. Placing this requirement in the design defined the need to predict the expected point of fall of the attacking missile before the interceptor is launched. Only a quantitative clarification of this element gave the green light to the main budgetary investment in development. Prof. Levy draws the conclusion from this that understanding the needs and identifying the risks in the first stages of the project are a significant advantage factor for the development capacity of this system.
Dr. Gili Fortuna, who is also a section of the leaders in Raphael's knowledge of project management, points out some important insights from his experience: for example, the dual role of the project head, the manager "dancing" between diving and focusing on specific problems in subsystems and quickly returning to seeing the overall project picture. Alongside the praise for meeting the "Iron Dome" challenges, he also gives examples of unsuccessful projects and explains in retrospect why they did not reach their destination.
In addition, the author interviewed a distinguished gallery of those with an opinion and interest in the field from the users of the academic development products, and experts who converted activities from the defense industries to the civilian field.
In the interviewees: academics: Prof. Danny Weiss and Prof. Ehud Bacher, members of the Technion's academic staff, Mr. Doron Shterman and Mr. Rani Hellerman, who represent the transformation of the development products into valuable products for the audience of users in the global market.
This respected cadre presents a collection of diagnoses and views in various diverse aspects that may be extremely useful to all those interested and engaged in the field, and finally we mention the work of Dr. Meir Ariel - the director of the scientific center in Herzliya and who leads the only satellite project in the world that is developed by high school students from all over the country and which He managed to decipher the "secret" in the development of tiny satellites and managed to place the student projects at the top of the global benchmark and without competition.
In summary: the State of Israel has been engaged in the management of projects for the development of systems for the military field for 50 years and a somewhat smaller number of years in civilian fields as well. This book and its author have an important place in the focus of the developers' thinking for the purpose of understanding the project process, including its failure modes, and the consequences of its proper management for all development teams.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- The "New Space" Takes Off: Space Engineering in the New Space Era By Prof. Haim Ashad
- Israeli initiative: to develop a swarm of satellites that will communicate with each other and with other swarms and a launcher for tiny satellites
- 20 years since the launch of Ofek 3 - the first military photography satellite that amazed even its developers with its performance
