44 Copyright © 2010, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 3 A Case Study of Usability Engineering in the Defence Industry Steve Hogg SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems Limited, Scotland Patrik O’Brian Holt Robert Gordon University, Scotland Jim Aitchison SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems Limited, Scotland Good ideas are not adopted automatically they must be driven into practice with courageous patience -Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900-1986) IntroductIon The work described and discussed in this case study relates to how BAE SYSTEMS, a multinational defence company, applied usability engineering and web technology to address mission critical control abStract The work discussed in this chapter is a case study of real application of usability engineering and Agile methods in the defence industry. The area of application is the monitoring of legal compliance to import and export of technology (ITAR). Manual compliance for an organization like BAE SYSTEMS presents serious challenges and is prone to errors, which can potentially lead to serious penalties. BAE decided to automate the compliance process using intranet technology with a time scale of three months. Several factors contributed to the successful development of the system and these include detailed but fexible planning, close and intense involvement of users and stakeholders and real time iteration of prototypes. The system is currently in use and while not without limitations, is seen as successful and provides a methodological framework for future similar work. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-896-3.ch003