YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ............................................................................................................. 5 TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT .......................................................................... 7 MESSAGES FROM THE DIRECTOR .............................................................................. 9 VIRTUAL PROJECT TEAMS AND LEARNING .............................................................. 9 INNOVATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT .................................................. 10 CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES .............................................11 LESSONS FROM TORINO ..................................................................................... 12 KNOWLEDGE EXPLOSION .................................................................................... 12 WORKING AND LEARNING TOGETHER ................................................................... 13 THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION OF PROJECT LEADERSHIP ................................... 13 ASK MAGAZINE ..................................................................................................... 15 HOW ORGANIZATIONS LEARN ANYTHING .............................................................. 15 ANATOMY OF A MISHAP INVESTIGATION ............................................................... 16 OPEN-DOOR INNOVATION ................................................................................... 19 PETROBRAS AND THE POWER OF STORIES .......................................................... 21 ISLANDS AND LABYRINTHS: OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER .................................................................... 24 TEN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING LESSONS LEARNED .................................................. 26 PHAETON: LEARNING BY DOING .......................................................................... 31 THE NEXT BIG THING IS SMALL .......................................................................... 33 PEER ASSIST: LEARNING BEFORE DOING ............................................................. 36 ROCKET + SCIENCE = DIALOGUE ........................................................................ 39 CASE STUDIES ...................................................................................................... 43 COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING: THE STS-119 FLOW CONTROL VALVE ISSUE ............................................................................ 43 LCROSS ......................................................................................................... 49 A c a d e m y o f P r o g r a m / P r o j e c t & E n g i n e e r i n g L e a d e r s h i p 1 YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEWS .......................................................................................................... 53 INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT BRAUN ........................................................................ 53 INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM GERSTENMAIER ........................................................... 57 FIVE QUESTIONS FOR WAYNE HALE .................................................................... 61 JIM CROCKER ON SYSTEMS ENGINEERING ........................................................... 63 FIVE QUESTIONS FOR DR. SCOTT PAGE .............................................................. 67 ASK THE ACADEMY ............................................................................................... 69 PM CHALLENGE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ROUNDUP .............................................. 69 LEARNING FROM FAILURE: OCO-2 GETS UNDERWAY .......................................... 70 ACADEMY BRIEF: CONGRESSIONAL OPERATIONS SEMINAR .................................... 72 NASA ON THE HILL: LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT VOLCANIC ASH IMPACT ON AVIATION ................................................................... 75 KNOWLEDGE BRIEF: GODDARD HOSTS “ALL THINGS KM” FORUM .......................... 75 LEADERSHIP BRIEF: MASTERS WITH MASTERS FEATURES BOLDEN AND DORDAIN ... 76 RISK BRIEF: JAY PITTMAN ON THE “ANATOMY OF A DRAGON” ................................ 77 YOUNG PROFESSIONALS BRIEF: KAT CODERRE .................................................... 78 2 A c a d e m y o f P r o g r a m / P r o j e c t & E n g i n e e r i n g L e a d e r s h i p YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 A c a d e m y o f P r o g r a m / P r o j e c t & E n g i n e e r i n g L e a d e r s h i p 3 YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 4 A c a d e m y o f P r o g r a m / P r o j e c t & E n g i n e e r i n g L e a d e r s h i p YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 FOREWORD “We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next.” - Paul Auster Everything we do is a story. There is always a challenge, a reaction, a solution, and Today the Academy is a broker for stories and ideas an outcome. There are success stories and tragic stories. across NASA as well the broader project, engineering, Stories of glory and stories of failure. In the end, the and aerospace communities. We’ve expanded from our success of any project comes down to the story that is initial efforts at collecting practitioner stories into other told. We rarely remember the details as time unfolds, areas, including practitioner-based case studies featuring but we always remember the story. Just as important is multiple perspectives, articles about new developments the opportunity a story provides for learning. It enables of interest to practitioners, and white papers about trends improvement and growth—for an individual, a team, or we’ve identified in project management and professional a community. Everyone has a need to understand his development. or her own story, to develop it, learn from it, and share it. The reflective practitioner is constantly learning and As we reviewed our output this year, we began to see how constantly getting better. a collection that features a cross-section of articles could provide practitioners with a knowledge resource that is The NASA Academy of Program/Project & Engineering as broad in scope as the grand challenges in aeronautics Leadership has been collecting and sharing stories about and space that NASA pursues everyday. We welcome projects and engineering for over a decade. Success your feedback. in programs and projects comes down to the ability to tap into knowledge and talent, and the Academy is committed to helping NASA optimize both of these resources. From the start, we have based our approach on four principles: - Practitioners know best. - Reflection is a critical element of continuous improvement and development. - Learning organizations have cultures that embrace sharing and open communications. Dr. Ed Hoffman - Stories are powerful means of conveying Director, NASA Academy of Program/Project & knowledge. Engineering Leadership A c a d e m y o f P r o g r a m / P r o j e c t & E n g i n e e r i n g L e a d e r s h i p 5 YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 6 A c a d e m y o f P r o g r a m / P r o j e c t & E n g i n e e r i n g L e a d e r s h i p YEAR IN KNOWLEDGE 2010 Trends in Project Management TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT March 2010 Five key themes are reshaping the practice of project management today. These themes—team diversity, virtual work, innovation, portfolio management, and sustainability—reflect the increasing complexity and global nature of project management. This white paper offers a brief synopsis of the latest research on each of these trends. TEAM DIVERSITY Diversity has multiple meanings in the context of project management. In 2009, scholars primarily addressed three dimensions of team diversity: cultural, cognitive, and geographic. As projects become more complex, technically challenging, and costly, they also become more globalized, Five project management trends emerged in 2009. compelling project managers to learn how to lead diverse teams. Skillful management of cultural diversity in teams is of project management of this kind of team diversity involves particular interest to project organizations like NASA. managing and integrating the team’s knowledge and skill sets. The future of space exploration hinges upon the ability to collaborate with government space agencies, industry, The last (and perhaps the most obvious) dimension of academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. While team diversity is geography. Developing an environment understanding differences in the ways people communicate that facilitates meaningful communication and productivity (e.g. the high-context culture of Japan versus the low-context is difficult when team members are not collocated. Once of the United States) is essential, strategic differences— considered a hindrance to effective team productivity, visions, goals, resources, politics, budgets, and national geographic diversity can now be managed, thanks to advances security concerns—are also important factors that shape the in technology. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a case in cultural diversity of a multinational project team.1 point: it is a collaborative effort among eight international partners, including the United States, Turkey, Denmark, and Research shows that project teams thrive on cognitive Australia. While this ambitious program poses many political diversity.2 Cognitively diverse teams include varying levels and national security challenges, the team has developed a of education, experience, age, training, and professional framework that enables suppliers, partners, and customers to background. Without careful attention, studies show