David Douglas Lyon

Mr. Lyon attended the University of Massachusetts, MIT and the University of Hartford. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hartford. He has worked in industry (General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and United Technologies) for thirty-nine years, primarily in the fields of Project Engineering and Configuration Management (CM). He has served as the Lead Configuration and Project Engineer responsible for several large projects in the defense, space and commercial product areas. Since leaving industry, Mr. Lyon has spent the past thirteen years writing books and teaching seminars on Configuration Management throughout North America and Europe.

Mr. Lyon's Configuration Management processes have provided the basis for the implementation of Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems in several major corporations. Mr. Lyon has been responsible for facility wide training in configuration and data management systems and procedures, and has provided hands-on training for PDM/PLM users, including CCB members, design engineers, drafting, manufacturing and quality assurance personnel, field engineers, customers, CM personnel, project engineers, and program managers.

While at General Electric and Lockheed Martin, Mr. Lyon developed the four state level of control system model, a powerful methodology for integrating Configuration Management with proposal development, contract negotiation, engineering development and test, manufacturing, production, quality assurance, IT, and product support activities. His duties during his 22 years at GE and LM included Lead Configuration Management Engineer and Project/Program Engineer for the Polaris, Poseiden and Trident submarine guidance and fire control programs.

Prior to joining General Electric, Mr. Lyon was a project engineer for the United Technologies Corporation, where he was responsible for proposal development, system design and test for several large engineering development programs, including the Lunar Lander, Mars Viking Spacecraft, CH53 Helicopter, and several commercial product programs.

Mr. Lyon is the author of the outstanding new CM text, 'Practical CM III: Best Configuration Management Practices for the 21st Century', 'Transparent CM: How to Get There', the CM community's all time favorite - 'Practical CM: Best Configuration Management Practices for the 21st Century', and 'Practical Project: Guidelines for Project Engineers and Program Management Personnel'

Mr. Lyon currently provides seminars and consulting services to clients throughout North America and Europe engaged in the transition from manual CM systems to automated CM systems.

The following are comments from a few of Mr. Lyon's readers:

Regarding the re-write of MIL STD 973 (MIL STD 3046 "Configuration Management") - "Thanks for your input.  Your comments and PCM III book have been a great source of material for this effort." Jeff Windham

"They (students taking CM course at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College) said they could understand the CM terms, speak intelligently in meetings, and had the "big picture" during the procurement process.  This speaks volumes about your text and the course." Larry Blavos, instructor

"The 'Practical CM' book is great--you've done a very nice job of putting into common English what could potentially be drudgery." Lou DeSanzo

"It is written in simple sentences, and is clear to understand." Kaiser Saifudin

"I have just finished reading your book and enjoyed it a lot - if one can enjoy reading about CM." Susan Floyd

"Your book may become a more useful tool than the handbook & military interface standards that are being developed by the Department of Defense." Dave Young

"The book authored by Mr. Dave Lyon is worthwhile reading. I have a softbound copy and have used it often as a source of information and suggestion." Wade Sanders

"I read it, and I'm a better person for it."  Karl Kremeyer

"Your book is very good for implementing CM."  Dennis Sutch

"The text is great. A simple straightforward approach, and explanations  that are easily understood."  Pete Bahr

"It is a bit long but has some valuable information contained in it." Jay McKenna

"I reviewed the book this morning and it looks like it will be a big help. Thanks for doing the hard work and suffering the pain." Norm Wolstein

"I spend $ out of my own pocket to purchase the book and I believe that it was a good investment."  Patrick Binckly

"I appreciated your book. Your book appears to provide a good track to follow when/if I get the opportunity to automate." Chris Hogg

"Practical CM helped me to set up a non bureaucratic electronic CM system for a very small aerospace company." Rob Roy

"David D. Lyon's Practical CM, Best Configuration Management Practices contains a cd which includes all the templates needed to start-up,up-grade, and maintain a good value added CM environment." Wayne Adams

"This is an excellent book! Very helpful!" Shereen Husk

"I'm very interested in obtaining more copies of your book for my department. I have found your book to be extremely helpful." Tonya Santini

"Your book was the best source on CM and far and away the best written in regards to terminology, information, and format of all the source documents and articles I have read. I know it will be an invaluable tool for me and it will be on my desk daily." Brett Oxley

"The book is very well done. Both my partner and I are very impressed and hope to apply many of the principles to a large project for which we are currently in negotiation." Henry Vandelinde

"Thank you very much for the very interesting and helpful book you  have written. From our point of view, there is really not much  literature available other than that of software configuration  management, and quite many of those are not useful for other disciplines. Especially the CM-related part of your book was most helpful and informative. Your work  for putting PDM into the right scope, a tool for implementing CM, was very enjoyable to read."  Juho Nikkola

"Thanks for your help. Your text is very useful."   Jean Vlieghe

"Your books are very good."  Lee Marshall

"I received your book a couple of weeks ago and have found it very interesting that most of CM practices that you describe in your book are what I have set up for the company that I work for. It has been very helpful to me to have as a reference."  Richard Potter

"Your text book has proven a very easy and enjoyable read so far. Although I am far, far from envisioning an electronic PDM, I am still referring to your text for a baseline understanding for the "manual" CM incorporation." Gerald Yedynak

"I like your pragmatic approach, both in contents and also language." Klaus Jung

"On first review, looks like you provide a great conceptual introduction to this domain for the "newbie" to be tasked and trained in this realm." William Turgeon