PM Network

The James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in December 2021, is the largest space science telescope ever developed. It is one of the most technically complex projects ever undertaken and will fundamentally change our understanding of how the universe works – and it all depends on people. PMI Strategic Advisor Dr. Ed Hoffman recently spoke with Greg Robinson, the Program Director of Webb at NASA, on the Center Stage podcast about leading the teams that made this futuristic endeavor a reality.

Hoffman: What are the biggest challenges that you have and your team faces in ensuring value delivery for Webb?

Robinson: Some of the larger challenges over the years were around performance. And with projects, it's all about performance, doing really good planning, getting your requirements right, setting your team during development, and getting it done within your constraints.

With that performance, the team is so important. Do we have the right team, the right team makeup? Are we communicating properly, not just talking but communicating? I took over Webb about three and a half years ago, and that was one of the largest glaring weaknesses, that communication was not good at all.

The biggest challenge was really getting the team focused not on the technical, but stepping it up a notch to make sure we were operating as one machine throughout the agency and with our stakeholders.

Hoffman: What are your principles in a leadership position or when you're part of a team? What do you look for to create a team that's high performing and successful?

Robinson: You want a good leader. That means a lot of things to different people. Someone who can look at the technical skills based on the work breakdown structure of the project. Do I have good technical prowess, technical leaders, good integrators, people who are not afraid of being challenged.

The great thing about NASA's history, internally, we've always been able to challenge each other. And we tend to end up with a better product. And that challenge has to occur with performance in mind, not taking too long to get it done. So recognizing people who have that skill, or can go deep technically, who are not afraid of being challenged, and often communicate.

In communications also we tend to talk technical language. And when we're communicating up and out, we have to talk layman's terms - that's not an easy skill. Those are the things I look for in my teams.

Hoffman: How did you develop into such a successful leader?

Robinson: Mentoring is a really big deal. A lot of a lot of people mentored me. We didn't even call it that at the time, but I reached out to other senior leaders, and basically saying, sure in different words, “I want to be like you one day when I grow up.”

Another area that came along a little bit later, the soft skills, which I did not appreciate early in my career at all. Then I took some class that was put together at NASA, and I was sold from that class on. I made sure I continued to develop my social skills through training and other types of development, kept the mentoring going, built networks within the agency.

So a combination of apprenticeship with senior leaders, mentoring, and training and development and networking. I think those were the key. And I continue to work on social skills today, believe it or not.

Listen to the full podcast on Center Stage.

…and we did so on the cover of February PM Network. Okay, it was in the form of a question, “Can Government Get Agile?”

The answer to that question, according to this PM Network article, is “yes.” Taking the lead from the private sector, governments worldwide are embracing change by adopting agile as a preferred delivery approach. Admittedly, the primary arena for agile in government is software projects, but the change is significant enough that governmental guidelines are endorsing iterative delivery. One result: government agencies are starting to shake their stereotype of being slow-moving monoliths that cannot adapt to change.

Statistics tell the story: In 2011, only 10 percent of U.S. major federal IT projects were agile or iterative; in 2017, that figure was 80 percent.

Regulatory challenges don’t make it easy for government project teams to follow agile approaches. A U.S. law requires a 90-day public comment period whenever an official form is updated. And since government projects often serve the entire general public, teams cannot chose a particular market segment.

The article details how several public-sector project teams (in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Australia’s National Blood Authority) used agile and overcame challenges.

Government project managers—if your team transitioned to agile, please share your story, either here in the blog or as an article proposal for the magazine’s “Getting It Done” column.

The answer to that question is yes, if you are working or living in a country where China is investing in infrastructure projects. The March PM Network cover story explains that the downturn in China’s domestic economy is being counterbalanced by Chinese investment outside of the country. Much of the US$1 trillion project investment in the past 10 years aims to support Chinese construction companies and manufacturers. These companies have increased their direct overseas investments by an astounding 47 percent in just the first five months of 2015, and these projects are not likely to be abandoned.

The figure of US$1 trillion comes up in another story this month. This mega-zero figure is the amount of cost efficiencies that would be created by full digitization of government services. Achieving that goal is tricky. Among the challenges are conflicting stakeholder requests, fluctuating budgets and sponsors who change at every election cycle. There is good news among the challenges—the article profiles a very successful project in Estonia that allows entrepreneurs to obtain “cyber-residency” in that country.

Big data may be too big. For many organizations, using big data is difficult to justify from a business-benefits standpoint. But some organizations are taking a more focused, targeted “small data” approach, capturing and using only the amount and type of data relevant to specific projects. Gathering targeted data requires careful risk management involving privacy and access issues.

Résumés are not passé. They are most au courant, as most recruiters still use them to cull out top talent. A well-crafted résumé, one that highlights your skills and experience most applicable to the role being sought, will bring you to the top of the pile. Learn five tips to crafting a winning résumé and get your foot in the door.

A case study this month details the largest Australian military facilities project since World War II. The team responsible for the AU$870 million project worked around military trainings and under close government supervision to move a Sydney-area base to make way for a new freight terminal. The project came in on budget and a month early.

Besides the cover story, March PM Network’s Edge section highlights other news from Asia—specifically about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its effects on projects in the region. This controversial deal is expected to increase project investment (but not uniformly) in signing countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan while possibly decreasing economic growth in China, a non-signing country.

Other Edge articles delve into the project management implications of increasingly sophisticated robots in the construction industry; cleaning up mines after mining operations cease; police using data to predict and prevent crime; and projects to upgrade technology on cruise ships.

Every month PM Network presents interesting data in an easy-to-digest infographic format. This month, learn about four global trends that are integrating technology and pedagogy, spurring educational institutions to sponsor new projects.

Practitioners and subject-matter experts share their knowledge on several subjects in this month’s magazine. These subjects include how to build trust on a project team; getting a PMO to support project managers as well as executive decision making; and helping military service veterans discover civilian project management career opportunities.

PM Network introduces two new columnists this month: Bhanu Vadlakonda, CAPM, will write several times a year about “NextGen Project Managers,” and Andy Robinson will discuss project management and organizational strategy.

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