Systems Engineering Best Practices Page

Mr. Robert Layton, Layton Consulting

Bob Layton, a co-designer of Criterium DecisionPlus, has been a systems engineer, systems engineering manager, project manager and consultant to the Aerospace industry for over 30 years. He worked as an electronics engineer in research as part of the Re-entry Physics Group at Bendix Systems Division in the early 1960s and as a Radar Systems Engineer at Hughes Aircraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the 70s, 80s, and early 90s he was a Systems/Software Engineer and Manager at Boeing. For Five years he was Product Line Manager in the Product Development Organization making "Go/Kill" decisions like those in this report. Since that time he has been involved in systems engineering and decision analysis consulting. He has been applying decision analysis techniques and tools in conjunction with other analytical and development methodologies and supporting tools to both small and large projects for over a decade. Mr. Layton's specialty is in the application of decision analysis techniques to the management of complex programs, product portfolio management, and strategic planning (acquisition, new ventures, etc.). Selected publications by Mr. Layton include:

"Decision Analysis Tools and Their Application to the Systems Engineering Process". Third Annual International Symposium of the National Council on Systems Engineering, July 26-28, 1993, Arlington, Virginia.
"A Methodology for Multi-benefit Portfolio Analysis With Uncertainty", OR/MS Symposium, April 1994, Boston, MA, (co-author).
"Decision analysis with uncertainty", Tools, Technology, & Techniques Conference, Scitor, 1997

Mr. Layton's consulting services include business seminars on the use of Criterium® DecisionPlus® for systems engineering and project management. Mr. Layton offers CDP Seminars for classes of 5-10 people. The client provides the classroom, PCs or laptops for the students and a projector to project the instructor's laptop screen

One Day CDP Training Package: $1,000 plus all instructor's incurred expenses. Subjects covered include: decision analysis tools and methodologies, CDP decision models, analysis and reports, using CDP to analyze uncertainty and tradeoffs, and sample model building.
Two Day CDP Training Package: $2,000 plus all instructor's incurred expenses. Provides consulting with students on their specific applications of CDP.
Clients do not have to own full copies of CDP to have a CDP training seminar. Seminars can be designed around the downloadable demo version of Criterium® DecisionPlus®.

Phone: 1-800-869-7150
Fax:1-206-788-0691