Robert Halligan

Mr. Robert Halligan is an executive project manager, engineering manager and engineering practitioner, known internationally for his role in the practice and improvement of technology-based projects.

Within early engineering, engineering management and project management roles with Telecom Australia, Department of Defence (Australia), Rockwell International and Andrew Corporation, Robert worked extensively in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Over the last twenty-five years, Robert has contributed to major systems projects worldwide (so far 36 countries) as a consultant and trainer.

The passion that Robert brings to systems engineering, and how to translate it into enterprise improvement, has benefited countless organizations worldwide: private, government and academic. Robert has experience in almost every definable business sector, over a broad spectrum of technologies.

Products and systems developed by Robert have, over many years achieved commercial success in the United States and in Australia, and remain in use today. Application areas in which Robert has particular experience are communications, medical products, aviation, consumer products, energy, land transportation, space and defense.

Over his career Robert has personally developed systems engineering-related artifacts that further advance the state of systems engineering. These include the Wedge Model (a derivative of the traditional V Model). He has also personally developed:

• a novel, efficient and very effective method for dealing with states and modes
• an efficient and effective requirements capture and validation methodology
• a methodology for measuring requirements quality
• a leading trade study methodology
• a very sound, practical functional analysis methodology.

Additionally, he has developed sets of advanced data item descriptions (DIDs) for key systems engineering documents, including System Requirements Specification, Software Requirements Specification, Interface Requirements Specification, Verification Requirements Specification, Interface Design Description, Architectural Design Description, Concept of Operations and Systems Engineering Plan.

These DIDs reflect improved practices vis-à-vis those of the best public domain DIDs (the DI-IPSC-8xxxx series), and are in widespread use worldwide by PPI’s clients.

Robert has led numerous systems engineering efforts, on projects of up to $1 billion.  As a hands-on engineering manager, he is an authority on the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of relevant systems engineering-related standards. He has consulted extensively in the area of requirements quality and its relationship to project risk, and on many other aspects of systems engineering.

Among the many clients served by Robert for Project Performance International are Aerosystems International (United Kingdom), BAE Systems (United Kingdom), Boston Scientific Corporation (USA), Raytheon (USA), Medela (USA), Ximedica (USA), GDLS (USA, Canada), Sciex (Canada), Mitsubishi (Japan), Tellabs, Inc. (USA), Kongsberg Defence Systems (Norway), GE Medical Systems (USA), Cochlear (Australia, Belgium), Alcatel (Belgium), EADS (Germany), Thales (the Netherlands, Australia), Gentex (USA), Department of Defence (Australia), Airservices Australia (Australia), NATS (UK), Nokia (Poland), HAVELSAN (Turkey), and others.

Robert has had the following relationships with universities, thereby contributing to the undergraduate and postgraduate education of engineers worldwide:

• development and delivery of the Master’s module “Managing Engineering Projects” for the University of Sydney/University of Technology Sydney. This module comprised one sixth of the courseware for the Master’s degree.
• guest lecturer for the National Defence University, Finland
• guest lecturer for the Singapore Institute of Technology
• delivery of a one-week Winter Workshop in SE for 3^rdyear students in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
• several one-week deliveries to Masters and PhD students at the Graduate School of Design and Management, Keio University, Japan
• lecturer designate for the Transnet Centre for Systems Engineering, Wits University, South Africa
• guest lecturer for ITA, Brazil
• presenter for Draper Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on several occasions.

He has served as a Member of the Board of Directors of INCOSE, as an INCOSE Ambassador, and for three years as INCOSE Head of Delegation to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 on Systems and Software Engineering. He has content in four of the five significant systems engineering standards intended for general application. He is an Honorary Member of the Korean Council on Systems Engineering (KCOSE), and of INCOSE Brasil.

Robert has lived and breathed systems engineering for much of his career. Outside of his professional life, Robert’s other passions are musical theatre, Australian football and the strange game of cricket.

Managing Director

LinkedIn: Robert Halligan

Affiliations

• Member, past member of the Board of Directors and past Ambassador, International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
• Founding Member and a Past President, Systems Engineering Society of Australia (SESA)
• Honorary Member, Korean Council on Systems Engineering (KCOSE)
• Honorary Member, INCOSE BRASIL
• Member, International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA)
• Member, Requirements Engineering Specialist Group (RESG)
• Member, System Dynamics Society (SDS)
• Member, Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD)
• Member, National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)
• Member, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)