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Agile Systems Engineering with Ken Kubo, Northrop Grumman Space Systems

In an environment of increasing mission and technological change, Agile practices have emerged as an effective approach to incorporating incremental learning in a “go fast” product development chain. However, managing rapid change and product evolution require a disciplined way to manage and communicate change coherently to your team. Agile Systems Engineering techniques are a major enabler to productivity through improved risk management, continuously confirmed compliance, robust and current verification approaches, and shared understanding and accountability for system functionality.

The Aerospace Corporation D8
200 North Aviation Boulevard, El Segundo, CA 90245
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Virtual location

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Oct 14, 2025 05:30pm PT - Oct 14, 2025 07:30pm PT

  • 5:30pm Mediterranean Supper at Aerospace, Introductions and Conversation Online
  • 6:00pm Chapter Introduction by our President
  • 6::15pm Speaker Presentation (recorded)
  • 7:30pm Meeting Adjournment

As systems grow larger, more complex, and begin to incorporate expectations of the deployment environment, infrastructure, and multiple subsystems, a disciplined approach is essential to preserving the understanding of the product vision. Once the purview of big industrial development houses, the practices of systems engineering and a systems thinking mindset are enablers of development productivity, ensuring clear elaboration of stories and acceptance criteria, incorporation of overarching requirements such as regulatory compliance, ongoing management of system margins, and understanding and maintaining the right level of testing. Regardless of your choice of scaling framework or tools, you can evolve and tell the story of the system so that all members of all teams can drive to a common valuable result. In particular, this presentation draws on the recent work of the NDIA Systems Engineering Division to update how technical capabilities are acquired, managed, and evaluated to responsively field system functionality at the speed of relevance.

Ken Kubo is Director of the Engineering Technologists group at Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Strategic Space Systems Division, Military Space Systems in Azusa, CA and is also the lead of the NG Space Sector Lean-Agile Center of Excellence. He has over 30 years of service with Northrop Grumman, with experience in software development, network security, systems engineering, and satellite operations. His primary area of focus has been satellite ground systems, building the bigger picture from individual bits of data. Thus, he’s naturally drawn to using Agile methods and information radiators to drive programmatic transparency. Ken supports project teams making their Agile transitions as coach and trainer and continues to be active as a speaker at internal and industry conferences. Ken is a member of the Los Angeles INCOSE chapter and NDIA. He is a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Practice Consultant, an ICAgile Certified Agile Coach, and a Certified Scrum Product Owner and Scrum Master; he holds an MS in Management Science from California State University/Fullerton and a BS in Engineering/English from Harvey Mudd College.