Customer interview: “Delta Pi helps us build a future-proof Schiphol”

A department at Schiphol responsible for designing, building, and managing our airport's infrastructure. We're involved in virtually everything needed to make Schiphol future-proof. My department is responsible for developing and ensuring the quality of processes and people within Schiphol Infrastructure

Among other things, we clearly define roles and responsibilities so that people are able to do their work and know which processes and systems they can use. The challenge is always to avoid overcomplicating things and to ensure they remain effective

Delta Pi helps Schiphol develop working methods and people in Systems Engineering (SE). In a nutshell, this is a way of working that helps set up projects properly from the start. It involves carefully considering what a project truly needs (value and requirements), rather than immediately coming up with solutions, but also consciously making trade-offs. SE is a structured approach to support this process. We hope that this will help Schiphol employees become better at defining requirements and making design choices in projects

The program focuses on increasing SE maturity at Schiphol. In other words, the increasing application of SE as the primary mindset, working method, and toolbox for developing and implementing successful systems. From Delta Pi, Ivan is the program manager, Melchert leads the "structuring and requirements" workflow, and Martijn focuses on "project management." We work with Delta Pi and several other colleagues in a hybrid team, allowing our permanent Schiphol colleagues to further develop their skills in this area

Thanks to the collaboration with Delta Pi, our system developers and technical experts can formulate much more clearly formulated requirements for projects. An example to illustrate this? Previously, we said: 'We need a bus to transport passengers from the aircraft to the terminal.' Now we formulate it this way: 'The transport system must facilitate the transport of at least x number of passengers within a maximum of y minutes from the aircraft to the terminal during peak hours.' This difference opens the door to more possibilities and encourages thinking in terms of needs rather than solutions. This creates more room for innovative and efficient solutions

The scan serves as a benchmark for determining our level of maturity in all aspects of SE. The initial scan revealed a significant gap between the current and desired maturity. This scan has kept us focused ever since and shows whether the improvement activities we've implemented are actually achieving the desired growth in SE adoption. Next year, we'll repeat the scan with my colleagues from the management team and reassess the program's future and content

Their approachable and unassuming demeanor. They don't come in with the idea of ​​taking over everything, but rather collaborate constructively. This makes it easy for our employees to collaborate with them. Their approach is 'doing it together,' where they first demonstrate, then collaborate, and finally allow our employees to work independently. Moreover, they always think in terms of sustainable solutions. They truly leave a lasting legacy

We want to focus even more on training our people, supported by Delta Pi. Think of a combination of learning and doing: training employees while simultaneously implementing new working methods in pilot projects. This way, we build the internal knowledge and skills needed to achieve all our ambitious goals