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NASA

NASA. Managing Knowledge and Learning. NASA Projects and Missions. NASA overview. Government agency funded by taxpayers with headquarters in Washington DC, Florida, and Houston Contractors “all over the place” Best engineers in the world

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NASA

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  1. NASA Managing Knowledge and Learning

  2. NASA Projects and Missions

  3. NASA overview • Government agency funded by taxpayers with headquarters in Washington DC, Florida, and Houston • Contractors “all over the place” • Best engineers in the world • Developed some of the most important technologies in today’s society

  4. NASA Contractors • NASA has a counterpart for every outside contractor • Has the budget so they call the shots • Access to most systems including financial • “NASA knows everything” • Some rivalry with other contractors

  5. NASA Culture Extras • Incredible attention to detail • So much experience is in the minds of people • Fresh minds are valued because they hold fewer biases • Starting over is common • Feels like an open door culture • Communication is constant

  6. V2 Bumper

  7. Extra: STS 123 “Fire in the Sky”

  8. Extra: STS 123 Launch

  9. Extra: Endeavour’s Flight Deck

  10. Extra: Crawler in Infrared

  11. Group Activity

  12. Rocket Knowledge • Tape the canister before rolling the paper around it • Cut out a large semicircle circle for the cone • Use as little paper as possible • Fill 1/3 of the canister with water • Use half of a tablet • What was the objective? • How is this exercise similar to the knowledge problem at NASA?

  13. NASA Failures

  14. Why?

  15. FBC (FasterBetterCheaper)‏

  16. "There is a criticalneed for the mostexperiencedpeople to mentor and trainothers . . . fromone mission to another."

  17. "Whatweneed is a culturalshift in the wayexperientialknowledge is cultivated and managed." -- ChiefInformationOfficer Lee Holcomb

  18. Apprenticeshipmodel -- transfer of tacitknowledgefrom the experienced to inexperienced

  19. advent of FBC destroyedthat

  20. Jet PropulsionLaboratoryprojectsjumpedfrom 4 to 40 in fiveyears

  21. Overworked and under-experienced • Expertise stretched thin

  22. Accenture Model • Accenture • 15-20% over other firmsbids • why? To managechange

  23. NASA didn'tbudget for knowledgetransfer

  24. Knowledge Management • What makes NASA’s KM needs unique? • A culture of Privatizing Knowledge • Competition among centers for projects/funding • Omit material in reports to preserve advantage

  25. Challenges facing KMS • What Challenges does NASA face? • Long-duration Projects • 50 plus years • Older technologies require more instruction • Geographically distributed communities • Political red tape • Who to share with, how and when

  26. Challenges facing KMS cont. 3. Managing the knowledge they currently have • 4 Million Web Pages • 2 Billon hits per month (2001!) • How to get this information to the public?

  27. KM Strategy • What was the strategy? • Provide engineers with history of design decisions on previous projects • Give project managers access to best risk-management tools • Provide the time for a senior scientist to mentor promising young “stars” • Can we replicate Apollo? • Can’t reuse technology if it wasn’t captured.

  28. KM Initiative: What have they done? • LLIS (exhibit 7) • Reluctant to share failures • Too much irrelevant information to sift through • Web Based Portal • Internal customizable portals • Availability to public • APPL • Workshops, best of the best managers • Share information that is impossible to store in a DB (tacit knowledge) • Aimed to create a sharing culture at NASA

  29. Options • Option 1:”Continue on the IT track, successfully pitching IT systems that improve NASA’s ability to capture and distribute knowledge” • Option 2:“Look, you know us for IT, and that’s what we’ve been doing, but what we really need to do is change the Knowledge Sharing culture at the agency”

  30. The future at NASA • Create a virtual presence of retired employees via KMS • Expanding mentoring system, creating oral histories • Support Cultural Change in both engineering and across the agency • Police KMS for irrelevant data, refine information organization and searching

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