Prospective Participants Conference. The National Shipbuilding Research Program has scheduled a Navy Product Data Initiative (NPDI) Prospective Participants Conference on 29 and 30 March 2007. The Navy Product Data Initiative (NPDI) objective is to develop a consensus specification for Integrated Product Data Environments (IPDE) which will be called out in future Navy acquisition and service life support contracts. The overall goal is to stimulate the implementation of product data systems based on an open architecture that have the capability to manage Naval ship product data throughout the ship?s lifecycle. Background: Individual ship acquisitions programs spend substantial sums on software (Integrated Product Data Environments) intended to streamline ship development and construction processes. Much of the spending is for ?integration? based on proprietary or ad-hoc interface specifications. The high cost of Naval shipbuilding and the high cost of IPDE provision under past practices mandate a more effective and efficient approach for future ship acquisition and service life support programs. The Navy requested that the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) develop an Industry-wide approach to a more effective IPDE for ship acquisition and service life support programs. The NSRP assembled an industry planning team in response to the Navy?s request. NPDI is a four-phased Navy/industry shipbuilding enterprise effort to address the problem described above and achieve the end state described below. In a Phase 0 effort, the Planning Group developed the initiative. Phase 1 is a five month planning effort. Phase 2 is an approximately one-year effort: o to develop a Navy IPDE specification to be invoked in future shipbuilding and ship repair contracts, o to develop a verification mechanism to measure specification compliance, and o for stakeholders to plan for implementation. Phase 3 is the implementation phase. The Integrated Product Data Environments implemented as a result of this initiative shall be consistent with recent guidance provided by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN(RDA)) on the implementation of Open Architecture throughout the Navy Enterprise. The Prospective Participant Conference (PPC) is a key event at the conclusion of Phase 1. The conference will bring together the various stakeholders in the Navy Shipbuilding Enterprise that are concerned about IPDE development and use. Attendance will include representatives from the U.S. Navy, shipbuilders, software vendors, and software integrators. The PPC will include discussions on the initial plans and scope of NPDI. It is intended to be an open forum with the following objectives: o Develop a consensus on the feasibility of this effort; o Identify any barriers to development and implementation; o Identify required resources, and o Review the Concept of Operations under which the NPDI will operate. In order to meet the objectives stated above, the attendees of the PPC will be asked to provide input, advice, suggestions, etc. on: o Methodology to develop and implement the IPDE specification o Verification and validation methodology o Collaborative work environment for specification development o Constraints o Terms and Conditions of participation o Agreement on intellectual property rights o Handling of proprietary data During IPDE Specification Development (Phase 2) Vendors will be encouraged to provide both ongoing feedback from reviewing the working specification and detailed feedback at each formal review. Vendors will also be asked to provide input on issues related to the NPDI IPDE specification or implementation. Software Vendors and Integrators who may be interested in attending the Prospective Participants Conference may obtain additional information by contacting Larry Karns at ATI, email
[email protected].