IPPD is a widely defined management technique normally implemented by Integrated Product Teams (IPTs). The Department of Defense defines is as "a management process that integrates all activities from product concept through production/field support, using a multifunctional team, to simultaneously optimize the product and its manufacturing and sustainment processes to meet cost and performance objectives." IPPD evolved from concurrent engineering, and is sometimes called integrated product development (IPD). It is a systems engineering process integrated with sound business practices and common sense decision-making. Organizations may undergo profound changes in culture and processes to successfully implement IPPD. IPPD activities focus on the customer and meeting the customer's need. In DoD, the customer is the user. Accurately understanding the various levels of users' needs and establishing realistic requirements early in the acquisition cycle is now more important than ever. Trade-off analyses are made among design, performance, production, support, cost, and operational needs to optimize the system (product or service) over its life cycle. In order to afford sufficient numbers of technologically up-to-date systems, cost is a critical component of DoD system optimization. Cost should not simply be an outcome as has often been the case in the past. Thus, cost should become an independent rather than dependent variable in meeting the user's needs.