Today, NASA's Office of the Chief Engineer delivers a mature methodology for capturing and disseminating knowledge, for sharing expertise and lessons learned, for ensuring effective communication, for developing its people and assigning the right people to the right projects and programs. How it matured is a story about failure and learning from failure. Much of it was painful. All of it was a journey to project management excellence.
An analytical description of the NASA project management system is presented with emphasis on the human element. The NASA concept of project management, program managers, and the problems and strengths of the NASA system are discussed.
This book is in full-color - other editions may be in grayscale (non-color). The hardback version is ISBN 9781680920512 and the paperback version is ISBN 9781680920505. The NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Handbook (NASA/SP-2014-3705) is the companion document to NPR 7120.5E and represents the accumulation of knowledge NASA gleaned on managing program and projects coming out of NASA's human, robotic, and scientific missions of the last decade. At the end of the historic Shuttle program, the United States entered a new era that includes commercial missions to low-earth orbit as well as new multi-national exploration missions deeper into space. This handbook is a codification of the "corporate knowledge" for existing and future NASA space flight programs and projects. These practices have evolved as a function of NASA's core values on safety, integrity, team work, and excellence, and may also prove a resource for other agencies, the private sector, and academia. The knowledge gained from the victories and defeats of that era, including the checks and balances and initiatives to better control cost and risk, provides a foundation to launch us into an exciting and healthy space program of the future.
