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"100 Rules for NASA Project Managers" was found buried in
a NASA web site. Though these rules have been written for
NASA managers from a NASA perspective, many of the rules are
very applicable to most Project Management situations. If
you are involved in Project work, these rules are a "MUST
READ".
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The Project
Manager
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Rule #1: A project manager should visit everyone who is
building anything for his project at least once, should know
all the managers on his project (both government and
contractor), and know the integration team members. People
like to know that the project manager is interested in their
work and the best proof is for the manager to visit them and
see first hand what they are doing.
Rule #2: A project manager must know what
motivates the project contractors (i.e., their award system,
their fiscal system, their policies, and their company
culture).
Rule #3: Management principles still are the same.
It is just that the tools have changed. You still find the
right people to do the work and get out of the way so they
can do it.
Rule #4: Whoever you deal with, deal fairly. Space
is not a big playing field. You may be surprised how often
you have to work with the same people. Better they respect
you than carry a grudge.
Rule #5: Vicious, dispicable, or thoroughly
disliked persons, gentlemen, and ladies can be project
managers. Lost souls, procrastinators, and wishywashies can
not.
Rule #6: A comfortable project manager is one
waiting for his next assignment or one on the verge of
failure. Security is not normal to project management.
Rule #7: One problem new managers face is that
everyone wants to solve their problems. Old managers were
told by senior management: "solve your own darn problems,
that is what we hired you to do."
Rule #8: Running fast does not take the place of
thinking for yourself. You must take time to smell the
roses. For your work, you must take time to understand the
consequences of your actions.
Rule #9: The boss may not know how to do the work
but he has to know what he wants. The boss had better find
out what he expects and wants if he doesn't know. A blind
leader tends to go in circles.
Rule #10: Not all successful managers are
competent and not all failed managers are incompetent. Luck
still plays a part in success or failure but luck favors the
competent hard working manager.
Rule #11: Never try to get even for some slight by
anyone on the project. It is not good form and it puts you
on the same level as the other person and, besides, probably
ends up hurting the project getting done.
Rule #12: Don't get too egotistical so that you
can't change your position, especially if your personnel
tell you that you are wrong. You should cultivate an
attitude on the project where your personnel know they can
tell you of wrong decisions.
Rule #13: A manager who is his own systems
engineer or financial manager is one who will probably try
to do open heart surgery on himself.
Rule #14: Most managers succeed on the strength
and skill of their staff.
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Initial
Work
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Rule #15: The seeds of problems are laid down early.
Initial planning is the most vital part of a project. The
review of most failed projects or project problems indicate
the disasters were well planned to happen from the
start.
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Communications
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Rule #16: Cooperative efforts require good
communications and early warning systems. A project manager
should try to keep his partners aware of what is going on
and should be the one who tells them first of any rumor or
actual changes in plan. The partners should be consulted
before things are put in final form, even if they only have
a small piece of the action. A project manager who
blindsides his partners will be treated in kind and will be
considered a person of no integrity.
Rule #17: Talk is not cheap; but the best way to
understand a personnel or technical problem is to talk to
the right people. Lack of talk at the right levels is
deadly.
Rule #18: 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 have adequate discussions so that there are no
misinterpretations of what is said.
Rule #19: 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 modern 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.
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People
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Rule #20: You cannot watch everything. What you can
watch is the people. They have to know you will not accept a
poor job.
Rule #21: We have developed a set of people whose
self interest is more paramount than the work or at least it
appears so to older managers. It appears to the older
managers that the newer ones are more interested in form
than in substance. The question is are old managers right or
just old? Consider both viewpoints.
Rule #22: A good technician, quality inspector,
and straw boss are more important in obtaining a good
product than all the paper and reviews.
Rule #23: The source of most problems is people,
but darned if they will admit it. Know the people working on
your project to know what the real weak spots are.
Rule #24: One must pay close attention to
workaholics: if they get going in the wrong direction, they
can do a lot of damage in a short time. It is possible to
overload them and cause premature burnout but hard to
determine if the load is too much, since much of it is self
generated. It is important to make sure such people take
enough time off and that the workload does not exceed 1 1/4
to 1 1/2 times what is normal.
Rule #25: Always try to negotiate your internal
support at the lowest level. What you want is the support of
the person doing the work, and the closer you can get to him
in negotiations the better.
Rule #26: If you have someone who doesn't look,
ask, and analyze; ask them to transfer.
Rule #27: Personal time is very important. You
must be careful as a manager that you realize the value of
other people's time (i.e., the work you hand out and
meetings should be necessary). You must, where possible,
shield your staff from unnecessary work (i.e., some requests
should be ignored or a refusal sent to the requestor).
Rule #28: People who monitor work and don't help
get it done never seem to know exactly what is going on
(being involved is the key to excellence).
Rule #29: There is no greater motivation than
giving a good person his piece of the puzzle to control, but
a pat on the back or an award helps.
Rule #30: It is mainly the incompetent that don't
like to show off their work.
Rule #31: There are rare times when only one man
can do the job. These are in technical areas that are more
art and skill than normal. Cherish these people, but get
their work done as soon as possible. Getting the work done
by someone else takes two or three times longer and the
product is normally below standard.
Rule #32: 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.
Rule #33: If you have a problem that requires
additional people to solve, you should approach putting
people on like a cook who has under-salted the food.
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Reviews and
Reports
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Rule #34: NASA has established a set of reviewers and
a set of reviews. Once firmly established, the system will
fight to stay alive, so make the most of it. Try to find a
way for the reviews to work for you.
Rule #35: The number of reviews is increasing but
the knowledge transfer remains the same; therefore, all your
charts and presentation material should be constructed with
this fact in mind. This means you should be able to
construct a set of slides that only needs to be shuffled
from presentation to presentation.
Rule #36: Hide nothing from the reviewers. Their
reputation and yours is on the line. Expose all the warts
and pimples. Don't offer excuses; just state facts.
Rule #37: External reviews are scheduled at the
worst possible time, therefore, keep an up-to-date set of
business and technical data so that you can rapidly respond.
Not having up-to-date data should be cause for
dismissal.
Rule #38: Never undercut your staff in public
(i.e., In public meetings, don't reverse decisions on work
that you have given them to do). Even if you direct a
change, never take the responsibility for implementing away
from your staff.
Rule #39: Reviews are for the reviewed an not the
reviewer. The review is a failure if the reviewed learn
nothing from it.
Rule #40: A working meeting has about six people
attending. Meetings larger than this are for information
transfer (management science has shown that, in a group
greater than twelve, some are wasting their time).
Rule #41: The amount of reviews and reports are
proportional to management's understanding (i.e., the less
management knows or understands the activities, the more
they require reviews and reports). It is necessary in this
type of environment to make sure that 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.
Rule #42: Managers who rely only on the paperwork
to do the reporting of activities are known failures.
Rule #43: Documentation does not take the place of
knowledge. There is a great difference in what is supposed
to be, what is thought to have happened, and reality.
Documents are normally a static picture in time that get
outdated rapidly.
Rule #44: Just because you give monthly reports,
don't think that you can abbreviate anything in a yearly
report. If management understood the monthlies, they
wouldn't need a yearly.
Rule #45: Abbreviations are getting to be a pain.
Each project now has a few thousand. This calls on senior
management to know hundreds. Use them sparingly in
presentations unless your objective is to confuse.
Rule #46: Remember, it is often easier to do
foolish paperwork that to fight the need for it. Fight only
if it is a global issue which will save much future
work.
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Contractors
and Contracting
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Rule #47: A project manager is not the monitor of the
contractor's work but is to be the driver. In award fee
situations, the government personnel should be making every
effort possible to make sure the contractor gets a high
score (i.e., be on schedule and produce good work).
Contractors don't fail, NASA does and that is why one must
be proactive in support. This is also why a low score
damages the government project manager as much as the
contractor's manager because it means that he is not getting
the job done.
Rule #48: Award fee is a good tool that puts
discipline both on the contractor and the government. The
score given represents the status of the project as well as
the management skills of both parties. The project
management measurement system (pms) should be used to verify
the scores. Consistent poor scores require senior management
intervention to determine the reason. Consistent good scores
which are consistent with pms reflect a well-run project,
but if these scores are not consistent with the pms, senior
management must take action to find out why.
Rule #49: Morale of the contractor's personnel is
important to a government manager. Just as you don't want to
buy a car built by disgruntled employees, you don't want to
buy flight hardware developed by under- motivated people.
You should take an active role in motivating all personnel
on the project.
Rule #50: Being friendly with a contractor is
fine; being a friend of a contractor is dangerous to your
objectivity.
Rule #51: Remember, your contractor has a tendency
to have a one-on-one interface with your staff. Every member
of your staff costs you at least one person on the contract
per year.
Rule #52: Contractors tend to size up the
government counterparts and staff their part of the project
accordingly. If they think yours are clunkers, they will
take their poorer people to put on your project.
Rule #53: Contractors respond well to the customer
that pays attention to what they are doing but not too well
to the customer that continually second-guesses their
activity. The basic rule is a customer is always right but
the cost will escalate if a customer always has things done
his way instead of how the contractor planned on doing it.
The ground rule is: never change a contractor's plans unless
they are flawed or too costly (i.e., the old saying that
better is the enemy of good).
Rule #54: There'is only one solution to a weak
project manager in industry; get rid of him fast. The main
job of a project manager in industry is to keep the customer
happy. Make sure the one working with you knows that it is
not flattery but on-schedule, on-cost, and a good product
that makes you happy.
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Engineers and
Scientist
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Rule #55: Over-engineering is common. Engineers like
puzzles and mazes. Try to make them keep their designs
simple.
Rule #56: The first sign of trouble comes from the
schedule or the cost curve. Engineers are the last to know
they are in trouble. Engineers are born optimists.
Rule #57: The project has many resources within
itself. There probably are five or ten system engineers
considering all the contractors and instrument developers.
This is a powerful resource that can be used to attack
problems.
Rule #58: Many managers, just because they have
the scientists under contract on their project, forget that
the scientists are their customers and many times have
easier access to top management than the managers do.
Rule #59: Most scientists are rational unless you
endanger their chance to do their experiment. They will work
with you if they believe you are telling them the truth.
This includes reducing their own plans.
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Hardware
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Rule #60: In the space business, there is no such
thing as previously flown hardware. The people who build the
next unit probably never saw the previous unit. There are
probably minor changes (perhaps even major changes); the
operational environment has probably changed; the people who
check the unit out in most cases will not understand the
unit or the test equipment.
Rule #61: Most equipment works as built, not as
the designer planned. This is due to layout of the design,
poor understanding on the designer's part, or poor
understanding of component specifications.
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Computers and
Software
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Rule #62: Not using modern techniques, like computer
systems, is a great mistake, but forgetting that the
computer simulates thinking is a still greater mistake.
Rule #63: Software has now taken on all the
parameters of hardware (i.e., requirement creep, high
percentage of flight mission cost, need for quality control,
need for validation procedures, etc.). It has the added
feature that it is hard as blazes to determine it is not
flawed. Get the basic system working first and then add the
bells and whistles. Never throw away a version that works
even if you have all the confidence in the world that the
newer version works. It is necessary to have contingency
plans for software.
Rule #64: Knowledge is often revised by
simulations or testing, but computer models have hidden
flaws not the least of which is poor input data.
Rule #65: In olden times, engineers had hands-on
experience, technicians understood how the electronics
worked and what it was supposed to do, and layout
technicians knew too; but today only the computer knows for
sure and it's not talking.
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Senior
Management, Program Offices, and Above
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Rule #66: Don't assume you know why senior management
has done something. If you feel you need to know, ask. You
get some amazing answers that will astonish you.
Rule #67: Know your management; some like a good
joke, others only like a joke if they tell it.
Rule #68: Remember the boss has the right to make
decisions. Even if you think they are wrong, tell the boss
what you think but if he still wants it done his way; do it
his way and do your best to make sure the outcome is
successful.
Rule #69: Never ask management to make a decision
that you can make. Assume you have the authority to make
decisions unless you know there is a document that states
unequivocally that you can't.
Rule #70: You and the Program Manager should work
as a team. The Program Manager is your advocate at NASA HQ
and must be tied into the decision makers and should aid
your efforts to be tied in also.
Rule #71: Know who the decision makers on the
program are. It may be someone outside who has the ear of
Congress or the Administrator, or the Associate
Administrator, or one of the scientists; someone in the
chain of command; whoever they are. Try to get a line of
communication to them on a formal or informal basis.
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Program
Planning, Budgeting, and Estimating
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Rule #72: Today one must push the state of the art,
be within budget, take risks, not fail, and be on time.
Strangely, all these are consistent as long as the ground
rules such as funding profile and schedule are established
up front and maintained.
Rule #73: Most of yesteryear's projects overran
because of poor estimates and not because of mistakes.
Getting better estimates will not lower costs but will
improve NASA's business reputation. Actually, there is a
high probability that getting better estimates will increase
costs and assure a higher profit to industry unless the fee
is reduced to reflect lower risk on the part of industry. A
better reputation is necessary in the present
environment.
Rule #74: All problems are solvable in time, so
make sure you have enough schedule contingency; if you
don't, the next project manager that takes your place
will.
Rule #75: The old NASA pushed the limits of
technology and science; therefore, it did not worry about
requirements creep or overruns. The new NASA has to work as
if all projects are fixed price; therefore, requirement
creep has become a deadly sin.
Rule #76: Know the resources of your center and,
if possible, other centers. Other centers, if they have the
resources , are normally happy to help. It is always
surprising how much good help one can get by just
asking.
Rule #77: Other than budget information prior to
the President's submittal to Congress, there is probably no
secret information on a project; so don't treat anything
like it is secret. Everyone does better if they can see the
whole picture so don't hide any of it from anyone.
Rule #78: NASA programs compete for budget funds;
they do not compete with each other (i.e., you never attack
any other program or NASA work with the idea that you should
get their funding). Sell what you have on its own merit.
Rule #79: Next year is always the year with
adequate funding and schedule. Next year arrives on the 50th
year of your career.
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The
Customer
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Rule #80: Remember who the customer is and what his
objectives are (i.e., check with him when you go to change
anything of significance).
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NASA
Management Instructions
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Rule #81: NASA Management Instructions were written
by another NASA employee like you; therefore, challenge them
if they don't make sense. It is possible another NASA
employee will rewrite them or waive them for you.
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Decisionmaking
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Rule #82: Wrong decisions made early can be recovered
from. Right decisions made late cannot correct them.
Rule #83: Sometimes the best thing to do is
nothing. It is also occasionally the best help you can give.
Just listening is all that is needed on many occasions. You
may be the boss, but if you constantly have to solve
someone's problems, you are working for him.
Rule #84: Never make a decision from a cartoon.
Look at the actual hardware or what real information is
available such as layouts. Too much time is wasted by people
trying to cure a cartoon whose function is to explain the
principle.
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Professional
Ethics and Integrity
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Rule #85: Integrity means your subordinates trust
you.
Rule #86: In the rush to get things done, it's
always important to remember who you work for. Blindsiding
the boss will not be to your benefit in the long run.
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Project
Management and Teamwork
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Rule #87: Projects require teamwork to succeed.
Remember, most teams have a coach and not a boss, but the
coach still has to call some of the plays.
Rule #88: Never assume someone knows something or
has done something unless you have asked them; even the
obvious is overlooked or ignored on occasion, especially in
a high stress activity.
Rule #89: Whoever said beggars can't be choosers
doesn't understand project management, although many times
it is better to trust to luck than to get poor support.
Rule #90: 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.
Rule #91: Remember, the President, Congress, OMB,
NASA HQ, senior center management, and your customers all
have jobs to do. All you have to do is keep them all
happy.
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Treating and
Avoiding Failures
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Rule #92: In case of a failure:
a) Make a timeline of events and include everything that is
known.
b) Put down known facts. Check every theory against
them.
c) Don't beat the data until it confesses (i.e., know when
to stop trying to force-fit a scenario).
d) Do not arrive at a conclusion too fast. Make sure any
deviation from normal is explained.
Remember
the wrong conclusion is prologue to the next failure.
e) Know when to stop.
Rule #93: Things that fail are lessons learned for
the future. Occasionally things go right: these are also
lessons learned. Try to duplicate that which works.
Rule #94: Mistakes are all right but failure is
not. Failure is just 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.
Rule #95: History is prologue. There has not been
a project yet that has not had a parts problem despite all
the qualification and testing done on parts. Time and being
prepared to react are the only safeguards.
Rule #96: Experience may be fine but testing is
better. Knowing something will work never takes the place of
proving that it will.
Rule #97: 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.
Rule #98: One of the advantages of NASA in the
early days was the fact that everyone knew that the facts we
were absolutely sure of could be wrong.
Rule #99: 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 in a build as if it were one of a kind and needed
for mission success.
Rule #100: Never make excuses; instead, present
plans of actions to be taken.
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"One Hundred Rules for NASA
Project Managers" Credits:
Page information provided by Jerry Madden/Goddard Space
Flight Center and edited by Rod
Stewart/Mobile Data Services, Huntsville, AL. January 1,
1995.
Curator: James Atherton, jatherto@Traveller.COM,
(205)-881-4045. SAIC, Huntsville, AL. January 26, 1995.
Contact: Sherman Jobe, sherman.jobe@msfc.nasa.gov,
(205)-544-3279
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For more information on how ASTECH Engineering may be able
to help you, please contact Jeff Wilson at astech@cox.net
or call 316-304-6157.
© Copyright 1996 ASTECH Engineering. All rights
reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any
form without the expressed written consent of the
author.
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Keywords:
Concept Research Development Integration Integrated Aviation
Avionics Aircraft Flight Controls
Autopilots Navigation Guidance Analysis Simulation Software
Algorithms Hardware Interfaces
Requirements Engineers HITL FCS GPS FMS UAV
Systems
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