A NASA Project Manager’s Lessons Learned – Part 2

 

The Second 25 Lesson's Learned

During Jerry Madden's 37-year career at NASA, the federal agency launched its first satellite, achieved the first lunar landing, and deployed the Hubble telescope. It also innovated outside the edges, bringing satellite TV, air-cushioned sneakers, and solar panels to the masses. In other words, NASA was an idea factory running at full steam.

Madden, who retired in 1995 as associate director of flight projects at Goddard Space Flight Center, was critical to the operation. As one of NASA's premiere project managers, he saw to it that great ideas became tangible innovations; he coordinated the technology, teams, and bureaucracy needed to propel science forward.

Along the way, Madden also curated and penned a now-infamous list of 128 lessons for project managers, which still circulates through NASA today.

Source of this document

You can download the original (free) at http://go.nasa.gov/2fBULlK  But some of it is NASA-specific, or at least Aerospace-specific.  It's been handed around, updated, parts removed and maintained for years.  I’ve modified these slightly to make them less “application specific” and more in-tune with current Project Management theory. I’m taking them 25 at a time and below are numbers 26 to 51. 

From the original document: “None of these are original--It's just that we don't know where they were stolen from!”  

The same goes for me!

This time, I’ve bolded  the ones I like…. 

Discussions:

I think the community here can add / subtract and modified from these.  Please feel free to post corrections, insults, additions, or general impressions.  Maybe even pick out your favorites. 

The Project Manager

26. Suppliers tend to size up their project counterparts, and staff accordingly. If they think yours are clunkers, they will take their poorer people to put on your project.

27. Documentation does not take the place of knowledge. There is a great difference in what is supposed to be, what is thought to have been, and what the reality is. Documents are normally a static picture in time which is outdated rapidly.

28. Remember who the customer is and what their objectives are. Communicate with them when you need  to change anything of significance.

29. In case of a failure:
    1. Make a timeline of events and include everything that is known;
    2. Put down known facts--check every theory against them;
    3. Don't beat the data until it confesses, know when to stop trying to force-fit a scenario;
    4. Do not arrive at a conclusion too rapidly. Make sure any deviation from the norm is explained.  Remember the wrong conclusion is prologue to the next failure;
    5. Know when to stop.

30. Remember the Program Manager has the right to make decisions, even if you think they are wrong.  Tell the Program Manager what you think but, if they still want it done their way, do your best to make sure the outcome is successful.

31. Redundancy in hardware can be a fiction. We are adept at building things to be identical so that if one fails, the other will also fail. Make sure all hardware is treated as if it were one of a kind and needed for mission success.

32. Don't be afraid to fail or you will not succeed, but always work at your skill to recover.  Part of that skill is knowing who can help.

33. Experience may be fine but testing is better. Knowing something will work never takes the place of proving that it will.

34. People have reasons for doing things the way they do them.  Most people want to do a good job, and if they don't, the problem is they probably don't know how or exactly what is expected.

35. The Project Manager may not know how to do the work, but they must know what they want.

36. The Project Manager should find out what they expect and want if they don't know. A blind leader tends to go in circles.

37. A puzzle is hard to discern from just one piece, so don't be surprised if team members deprived of information reach the wrong conclusion.

38. Reviews are for the reviewed and not the reviewer. The review is a failure if the reviewed learn nothing from it.

39. The amount of reviews and reports are proportional to management's understanding, i.e., the less management knows or understands the activities, the more it requires reviews and reports. It is necessary in this type of environment to make sure the data is presented so that the average person, slightly familiar with activities, can understand it. Keeping the data simple and clear never insults anyone's intelligence.

40. In olden times, engineers had hands-on experience, technicians understood how things worked, what it was supposed to do.  But today only the computer knows for sure, and it's not talking.

41. Not using computer modeling for systems is a great mistake, but forgetting the computer simulates thinking is still greater.

42. Management principles haven’t changed. It is just the tools that have changed. You still should find the right people to do the work and get out of the way so they can do it.

43. It is mainly the incompetent that don't like to show off their work.

44. Whoever you deal with, deal fairly. You may be surprised how often you must work with the same people. Better they respect you than carry a grudge.

45. Failure is a mistake you can't recover from; therefore, try to create contingency plans and alternate approaches for the items or plans that have high risk.

46. You cannot be ignorant of the language of the area you manage or with that of areas with which you interface. Education is a must for the Project Manager. There are simple courses available to learn computerese, communicationese, and all the rest of the modern ese's of the world.  You can't manage if you don't understand what is being said or written.

47. Most international meetings are held in English. This is a foreign language to most participants such as Americans, Germans, Italians, etc. It is important to take adequate steps so that there are no misinterpretations of what is said.

48. NASA Management Instructions are written by another NASA employee like yourself; therefore, challenge them if they don't make sense.  It is possible another employee will rewrite them or waive them for you.

49. A working meeting has about six people attending.  Meetings larger than are mainly for information transfer.

50. Being friendly with a supplier is fine--being a friend of a supplier is dangerous to your objectivity.
     
51. NASA must work at a fixed price; therefore, "requirements creep" has become a deadly sin.