Competencies Required for Successful Acquisition of the Next Generation Air Transportation System

The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) is facing the challenge of significant increases in workload for the air traffic control system. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) efforts are aimed at providing the changes to the system needed to meet that challenge. In order to be prepared, the FAA is looking at the competencies needed to develop and deploy the improvements in an effective and efficient manner. As part of this work, Stevens Institute of Technology has been tasked to review the competencies needed for systems engineering, systems integration, and software engineering. This paper reviews the initial efforts and approach to define a competency model that best fits the needs of the NextGen program.