The Razor's Edge of Support System Management

Two costly mistakes are frequently made in the management of the support program for a major weapon or space system: 1) Considerations of support requirements are neglected until it is too late to accomplish a reasonably scheduled minimum cost program. 2) In an ardent effort to avoid the first mistake, hardware and software programs are promulgated before support concepts or prime system design have been adequately frozen. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate these pitfalls and indicate how they may be avoided.