Lessons from ASTRON’s instrumentation projects: developing a practical approach to project management and systems engineering

ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute of Radio Astronomy has embarked on a continuing journey of improving its project management and systems engineering practices. Daring to experiment with novel approaches, learning from them and implementing the lessons in practice play a pivotal role herein. By now, these efforts have led to a wide range of improvements, including the introduction of lean systems engineering with a preference for modelling over documentation, an iterative approach to development building upon a minimum viable product and increasingly complex prototypes, an agile approach to planning and teamwork, close involvement of stakeholders in the development process and a continuous professional development of our systems engineers and project managers. As a result, we observe higher instrument quality, increased stakeholder satisfaction and more transparency in project progress and costs.