Slide 1

Presentation to the Project Presentation to the Project Management Challenge: Management Challenge:

NASA’s Challenges to Meeting NASA’s Challenges to Meeting Cost, Schedule, and Performance Cost, Schedule, and Performance

GoalsGoals

February 2012

Jim Morrison, Assistant Inspector General Ridge Bowman, Program Director

Ray Tolomeo, Program Director

Slide 2

Points for DiscussionPoints for Discussion

Background Review Objectives Scope and Methodology What Was Found Road to Improvement

BackgroundBackground

NASA is an Agency with a unique mission and significant accomplishments Apollo Hubble Space Shuttle

Agency’s largest scientific and space exploration projects experience significant cost overruns and schedule delays.

Fundamental and interrelated factors that cause poor cost, schedule, and performance outcomes, include: Inaccurate cost estimates; Failing to adequately define requirements; and Underestimating the complexity and maturity of technology.

Forced to manage diverse portfolio of projects with lower levels of funding than received in the past.

Slide 3

BackgroundBackground

Slide 4

NASA Budget as a Percentage of the Federal Outlay

Review ObjectivesReview Objectives

Given the likelihood of NASA having to execute its portfolio on tighter budgets in the coming years, the Agency “resetting” itself in undertaking entirely new efforts in space exploration, and demonstrated difficulties in completing projects within cost and schedule goals, the OIG:

Examined NASA’s project management practices and challenges and

Surveyed personnel to determine what they believe are the greatest challenges facing project managers.

In order to better understand the root causes of NASA’s inability to meet cost, schedule, and performance goals.

Slide 5

Scope & MethodologyScope & Methodology

Finding primarily based on interviews with a wide variety of officials Administrator, Deputy Administrator, Chief of Staff HQ Staff (7 interviews/11 people) Center Management (6 Centers/11 people) Project Managers and staff (approx 50 projects/59 people) Former NASA Management

Michael Griffin Craig Steidle Alan Stern

External to NASA John Logsdon Marcia Smith

Blog generated 241 responses in the 3 weeks it was open.

Slide 6

Slide 7

FindingsFindings

We identified five overarching challenges that hinder NASA’s ability to achieve project cost, schedule, and performance goals. These include:

An overly optimistic organizational culture;Unstable funding;Technical complexity of projects;Incomplete measures of success in project management policy; andLimited opportunities for project managers’ development.

Slide 8

Overly Optimistic Overly Optimistic Organizational CultureOrganizational Culture

Employees are incentivized to be innovativeLegacy has fostered a “can do” attitudeOptimistic culture necessary to achieve mission goalsHowever

Dismissal of cost and schedule constraints in favor of technical successUnrealistic plans and performance baselines

Slide 9

Unstable FundingUnstable Funding

Number 1 reason stated by the vast majority of intervieweesSources of funding instability

Internal Agency decisions and external decisions by Congress and AdministrationDifferent than what was planned or at a time other than plannedInefficiencies generated from constant re-plans, delaying lower priority tasks, maintaining standing armySecond and third order effects on smaller, lower priority projects resulting from need to support larger projects

Slide 10

Technical Complexity of Technical Complexity of NASA ProjectsNASA Projects

Never before attempted technologies developed in parallelUnderestimate level of effortHeritage technologies (form, fit, function)Lack of insight into unknowns and risks in formulation and early development

Slide 11

Incomplete Measures of Incomplete Measures of SuccessSuccess

Emphasis placed on technical and overall mission success.Lack of emphasis on cost and schedule performance – no project plan included cost or schedule as part of success criteria.Every Project responded in the affirmative when asked if their project was “successful,” regardless of whether it met cost, schedule, performance goals, or was even operational.

Slide 12

Limited Opportunity for Limited Opportunity for Managers for DevelopmentManagers for Development

Managers stated that hands-on experience more important than classroom training.Decline in smaller projects for new managers to gain experience.At some Centers, focus has been on operations vice development. With retirement of Shuttle, development efforts may suffer due to lack of developmental experience.More oversight being provided vice hands-on experience for technical staff.

Slide 13

Road to ImprovementRoad to Improvement

Coordinated Leadership at All Levels Required for Implementing Meaningful Change

True for leadership from the White House to individual project managersManageable portfolio based on realistic estimates and available resourcesCourage to make unpopular decisions and courage to say “no”Focus attention on the root causes

Slide 14

Open for Open for Discussion/QuestionsDiscussion/Questions

??