Integrated Product Team (IPT)

IPT is a cross-functional team organized around a deliverable rather than a function. On a major program, the work is decomposed into 5 to 50 IPTs, each owning a discrete piece of the system and staffed with the engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and program disciplines needed to deliver it. The advantage is decision speed. The disadvantage is governance: 30 IPTs each making local trade-offs need a tight systems-engineering function to keep the architecture coherent. The IPT Lead role is the closest aerospace gets to a startup GM role. Roles where this matters: Program Management, Systems Engineering, Engineering.