A Project Manager’s Lessons Learned – Part 5 The Last of the series!

 

Originally documented by Jerry Madden NASA Associate Director

Modified for ProjectManagement.com by David A. Maynard

Who is Jerry Madden?

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.   I’ve modified these slightly to make them less “application specific” and more in-tune with current Project Management theory.  I’m taking them about 25 at a time  - the actual count depends upon my editing.

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!

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. 

                                      Endeavour Flight Deck (My Old Office...)

The Project Manager

107.        Gentlemen and ladies can get things done just as well as bastards. What is needed is a strong will and respect – not “strong arm” tactics. It must be admitted that “strong arm tactics” does work but leaves a residue that must be cleaned up.

108.        Though most of us in our youth have heard the poem by Benjamin Franklin that states “for want of a nail the race was lost”, few of us realize that most space failures have a similar origin. It is the common place items that tend to be overlooked and thus do us in. The tough and difficult tasks are normally done well.  The simple and easy tasks seem to be the ones done sloppily.

109.        In the “old NASA”, a job done within schedule and cost was deemed to be simple. The present NASA wants to push the start of the art, be innovative, and be a risk taker but stay on schedule and cost. One gets the feeling that either the new jobs will be simple or that the reign of saints has finally occurred.

110.        Meetings, meetings – A Projects Manager’s staff meeting should last 5 minutes – minimum/1-hour max.   Less than 5 minutes and you probably didn’t need the meeting – longer than 1 hour, it becomes a bull session.

112.        Taking too many people to visit a supplier or puts them in the entertainment business – not the hardware or software business.

113.        Too many engineers get in the habit of supporting support suppliers and of using them as a crutch. In many cases, it is getting to the point where one must wonder who is who.

114.        Reviews, meetings, and reality have little in common.

115.        You should always check to see how long a change or action takes to get to the implementer – this time should be measured in hours and not days.

116.        Let your staff argue you into doing something even if you intended to do it anyway. It gives them the feeling that they won one! There are a lot of advantages to gamesmanship if no one detects the game.

117.        Some suppliers are good, some are bad, but they seem to change places over time, making the past no guarantee of the future; thus, constant vigilance is a project requirement.

118.        It is rare that a supplier does not know your budget and does not intend to get every bit of it from you.  This is why you have to constantly pay attention to the manpower they use and to judge their activities in order to assure that they are not overloading the system.

119.        People tend to ask for what they think they can get and not what they need.

120.        Too much cost data on a proposal can blind you to the real risks or forgotten items. On a project we thoroughly knew, we spent 6 months validating the cost, had rooms full of data, and presented our findings to Headquarters. Two weeks later, the supplier found an “Oh I forgot” that costs $30 million. One should look at how past programs spent their money to try to avoid these traps.

121.        We estimated we needed about 20 percent contingency on previously flown subsystems and about 40 percent to 50 percent on new ones. The ratio was about right except the order was reversed.

122.        There are some small companies that make the same subsystem correctly every time because the same people do it. There are some large companies that can never make the same unit correctly every time because different people do the work each time. 

123.        Too many project managers think a spoken agreement carries the same weight as one put in writing. It doesn’t. People vanish and change positions. Important decisions must be documented.

124.        Make sure everyone knows what the requirements are and understands them.  You must have the right people look at requirements. A bunch of managers and salesmen nodding agreement to requirements should not make you feel safe.

125.        Too many people at believe the myth that you can reduce the food to the horse every day till you get a horse that requires no food. They try to do the same with projects which eventually end up as dead as the horse.

126.        The project manager who is the smartest man on his project has done a lousy job of recruitment.