# Presentation: 329897

## Thoughts on GSFC In-HouseProject ManagementCraig Tooley

## Big Picture

- Most in-house projects at GSFC are carried out by teams comprised of a mix of civil servants and support contractors with the occasional “prime” contractor for a specific subsystem or instrument.
- Team member’s home organizations will inevitably have a wide variety of goals, motivations, and internal management methodologies. Some will be common with the project’s but many will not. Similarly, GSFC’s immediate priorities and strategic goals may be at variance with the projects immediate needs.
- The project is its’ own prime contractor and thus lacks the contractual “carrots & sticks” used in managing an out-of-house projects.
- The key to success is *people*, the project management must motivate and  enable the team members and build commitment to the common goals.

## The Project team 

- Contracted Out
- Subsystems
- &
- Instruments

- NASA HQ

- GSFC

- Launch Service
- Provider

- Project Manager

- DPMs - Technical

- Systems Engineers

- Project Scientist and/or PIs

- DPM - Business

- Subsystem Leads

- Engineers

- Designers

- Technicians

- Project Support

- Fabricators

- I&T Manager(s)

## Planning & Tracking

*No shortage of tools (and the mandate that you must use them!): Project Plans, WBS, SOW, PDP, Schedules, Budgets, Requirements Documents, Risk Management tools, Critical Path Analysis, metric du’jour, etc....*
-       But key to a successful in-house projects are development plans that have the ownership of both the subsystem leads and the project. Embodied  in these are clear understanding of the requirements and agreed upon game plan for the cost, schedule and technical approach. These are the product of critical discussions, negotiations, and in the end even the possible inclusion of caveats.
- Of the main partners; the project, the Lead engineer and his team, and the discipline organization, the discipline organization is sometimes a weak player.
- Never bank on forcing an in-house organization to “keep their promises”, because it may be impossible for them to do so.
- Common source of errors in developing budgets are flawed assumptions about phasing people on and off the project. Seek advice from experienced Leads and  I&T Managers !
-      Once development work is ongoing the project must develop the ability to “see down the road” and deal with problems before they become catastrophes. Different subsystems will require different levels of oversight, depending on the people and the challenges faced.
- The project and the lead engineers are partners, not adversaries!
- Avoid putting your lead engineers in the middle of struggles between their home organization and the project.

## People

- Although GSFC is a thoroughly matrixed institution most of the key people on a project team will spend a large fraction if not a large majority of their time and energy working on the project.
- The project becomes a de facto partner with the home organization in the personnel management responsibility for the team members.
- In-house Project Managers primarily manage the efforts of people, not contracted institutions or suppliers.

-  Trust
-  Inclusion
-  Appreciation
-  Recognition
-  Challenge
-  Reward
-  Safety

**Learn what motivates your people, these are**
** ****your tools for developing a high performance team.**

## Decisions

- In-house project management is essentially about planning a course of action and making decisions along the way.
- In-house GSFC project managers have a great deal of authority in making decisions.
- Decisions are one of  the engines that drives progress forward.
- Deferred or delayed decision making breeds frustration.
- Good decisions are rarely interrogated until after the fact.
- Bad decisions bring extra reviews and “help” *if left uncorrected.*
- To make good decisions project management must:
- As a group have sufficient technical understanding of the problem at hand.
- Recognize that usually a decision is needed before there is enough data.
- Develop the ability the make decisions and then change them without hesitation when it is  clear they were wrong, taking full responsibility for the impacts.
- Developing the skill to synthesize good decisions, *most of the time, *quickly based on available data is an extremely important skill.

## Footnote 1 – 80/20 Principle

- _80 % of the results stem from 20% of the efforts_
*An observed characteristic of human endeavors.*
*But awareness of it can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your project, your teams and yourself as a manager.*
*Helps sort out what to focus on and when, all problems, issues , and tasks are not equal*
*Helps understand team and individual performance, leads to matching resources to tasks to align as much of the effort as possible to achieve 80/20 results.*
*Understanding the inherent imbalance yields insights that help you find solutions.*
*Ref: *_*The 80/20 Principle*_* by Richard Koch*

## Footnote 2 – ISO9001 & Information Management

- Being ISO9001 compliant is not really a big deal if you are conducting your business properly.
- The Triana Project repackaged the SMEX & SSPP methodologies already in place. Triana passed four audits with flying colors.
- The requirements are more flexible than they may appear and can be changed.
- It is easy to spend more effort on fighting the system than exploiting it and meeting the requirements.
- ISO9001, CM, and the Project’s information infrastructure are related but not the same.
- A well thought-out, web based information sharing system pays for itself quickly in terms of efficient day-to-day activities.
- Avoid the creation of an ad-hoc situation that you later try to unify and relate.

## Footnote 3 – Peer Reviews

- Of the myriad variety of reviews a project is subjected to or conducts, technical Peer Reviews are the most important to success.
- Integrity of the process and thoroughness are essential
- Major subsystems or particularly challenging ones will usually require multiple reviews at various stages.
- One model that works:
- Peer reviews organized and chaired by the projects chief system engineer.
- True Peers
- Formal actions and closures
- Project management attends Peer Reviews
- No time limit, it is a technical review, not a presentation.
- Scrub the design until the job is done

## Dealing with Problems

- Honesty at all levels
- The project team owns the problems, even if you did not create it you’ll own the solution.
- Don’t let major problems fester in secret with a naïve hope that they’ll heal. But don’t lay your problems on table without solutions.
- Interrogate designs and plans vs. requirements
- Flexibility in I&T plans often allows rearrangement of critical paths, buying schedule.
- But !  Deciding to retire risk at a different point  or in a different way is often a wise solution but deciding you don’t *really* need that verification test is usually stupid.
- If in the end the only solution is extra time, money or a descope take that forward ASAP, your customer appreciates flexibility too.