New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA

1. New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA Robert Benedict Lara Petze August 18, 2010

2. Agenda • Background • NPR 7120.7* Modifications Under Consideration • Project baselining and rebaselining • Standard Level 2 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) • Criteria for projects to be subject to NPR 7120.7 • Summary * NPR 7120.7, NASA Information Technology and Institutional Infrastructure Program and Project Management Requirements New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA —2— August 18, 2010

3. Project Baselining And Rebaselining New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—3—August 18, 2010

4. Background • NPR 7120.7 identifies four types of IT and institutional infrastructure investments: • Information Technology (IT) • Construction of Facilities (CoF) • Environmental Compliance and Restoration (ECR) • Other Mission Support Investments (OMSI) • This briefing addresses IT investments only • The updates that we are discussing today are in draft only, and must be reviewed via the Agency’s policy approval process New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—4—August 18, 2010

5. Background • NPR 7120.7, Information Technology and Institutional Infrastructure Program and Project Management Requirements, was issued in November 2008 • New requirements and Agency experience with using NPR 7120.7 has resulted in the need for modifications in several significant areas • OCIO continually identifies candidate changes to NPR 7120.7 to advance the success of the Agency’s IT programs and projects New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—5—August 18, 2010

6. Project Baselining and Rebaselining Background • Currently NPR 7120.7 addresses baselining (at Key Decision Point (KDP)-C) but does not discuss changes to elements of the baseline that may occur during the project’s implementation • As an Agency, we recognize the need to issue policy on rebaselining of IT projects to manage cost, schedule, and scope changes • NASA has accepted Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation that we develop a rebaselining policy for IT projects • OMB has issued policy direction (M-10-27) regarding development of agency IT investment baseline management policies that must be implemented by the end of September 2010 New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—6—August 18, 2010

7. Project Baselining and Rebaselining Definitions • Baseline - an agreed-to set of requirements, cost, schedule, designs, documents, etc. that will have changes controlled through a formal approval and monitoring process as defined by NPR 7120.7 • Re-baseline - the process by which a project updates or modifies the project baseline as a result of any approved change to the project’s schedule, cost, or deliverable content • Re-baseline may result from 1. the baseline documented at KDP-C as defined in NPR 7120.7, or 2. the current baseline that was subsequently approved via the rebaselining process. New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—7—August 18, 2010

8. NPR 7120.7 IT Project Lifecycle New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—8—August 18, 2010 NASA decides at each KDP whether the project should move to the next life-cycle phase

9. Project Rebaselining Steps • Determining when a rebaseline is warranted for consideration • Developing the proposed new baseline • Validating the proposed new baseline • Review and Approval by management of the proposed new baseline • Documenting rebaselining decisions New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—9—August 18, 2010

10. Determining When a Rebaseline is Warranted for Consideration: OMB Direction • Acceptable reasons for rebaselining include: • Significant change in investment goals (scope, requirements, objectives) resulting from internal or external management decisions, or changes in funding level or availability of funds (e.g. extended continuing resolution), or contracting (including contractual protests) • In the case where an incremental or iterative system development and planning lifecycle has been chosen for the investment, progressive elaboration may be necessary when transitioning from one iteration or increment to the next, as scope and objectives evolve. Such rapid evolution inherent to iterative development shall be approved by the Agency CIO. • Current baseline is no longer useful as a management tool for realistic performance measurement as variances are so high that they lose meaning New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—10—August 18, 2010 Issue: how/whether to specify in policy magnitude of variances that will trigger rebaselining

11. Project Rebaselining Thresholds We Are Considering • Cost • If the project’s cost estimate at completion exceeds the current baseline by 10% or more (is this too low??) •  Schedule • If the project’s schedule estimate at completion exceeds the current baseline by 10% or more (is this too restrictive??) • If a KDP is forecast to slip by more than 45 days (is this too restrictive) New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—11—August 18, 2010 Many of our IT projects are of relatively low cost and of relatively short duration!

12. Project Rebaselining Thresholds We Are Considering • Scope • If the project or the customer proposes to add or modify functional requirements that would result in changes that exceed the cost and schedule thresholds noted above, or • If the project or the customer proposes to defer or eliminate functional requirements determined by the customer to be significant, even if the current cost or schedule baselines are not affected New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA —12—August 18, 2010

13. Project Rebaselining Thresholds We Are Considering • Program Managers • If a Program Manager imposes more stringent or additional rebaselining thresholds on a project • If a Program Manager deems it appropriate to reduce or remove the thresholds (waiver required) • Agency IT Program Management Board (PMB) • If the IT PMB recommends to the NASA CIO thresholds that differ from those detailed in this document (and the CIO accepts the recommendation) The Agency IT PMB is the Governing Body that makes Recommendations to the NASA CIO at each KDP whether a project should move forward to the next life cycle phase New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—13—August 18, 2010

14. Standard Level 2 Work Breakdown Structure New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—14—August 18, 2010

15. Standard Level 2 WBS Background • Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) defined: (NASA WBS Handbook, January 2010) • A product-oriented hierarchical division of the hardware, software, services, and other work tasks that organizes, displays, and defines the products to be developed and/or produced and relates the elements of the work to be accomplished to each other and the end product(s) . The WBS should be accompanied by a text document referred to as a WBS Dictionary that describes the work content each element of the WBS in detail. • The Standard Level 2 WBS policy will address: • NASA’s need, as an Agency, for a standard level 2 WBS for IT • Recommendations from GAO, “GAO Report 10-2; Information Technology; Agencies Need to Improve the Implementation and use of Earned Value Techniques to Help Manage Major System Acquisitions; October 2009” • Good characteristics of a WBS (per GAO, and we agree): • Applies to the entire life cycle of the project. • Ensures that changes to the WBS be governed • Establishes a product-oriented WBS to allow a project to track cost and schedule by defined deliverables New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—15—August 18, 2010

16. Standard Level 2 WBS For IT Projects: Business Rules • Project name is WBS Level 1 • Title of each WBS Level 2 element can be modified to facilitate project-unique titles, but the content of each must remain the same • Additional WBS elements may be added horizontally as long as the content does not fit into the content of any existing standard WBS element • WBS Level 3 elements, Level 2 subordinate (children), are determined by the project • Level 3 and lower elements may differ from project to project and must include only work that rolls up into the standard WBS Dictionary definition of the Level 2 element • An inactive placeholder element (and inactive placeholder financial code) will be established if no work fits into a standard WBS element New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—16—August 18, 2010

17. NPR 7120.5 Level 2 WBS Space Flight Projects WBS New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—17—August 18, 2010

18. NPR 7120.8 Level 2 WBS Research & Technology Portfolio Project WBS Technology Development Project WBS New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—18—August 18, 2010

19. NPR 7120.7 Level 2 WBS* Information Technology Project WBS New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—19—August 18, 2010 * Courtesy of Kenneth Poole, MSFC

20. Standard Level 2 WBS Benefits • Facilitates planning and control of cost, schedule and technical content • Unifies the technical and financial structures of a project • Enables Project Manager to identify which components are causing cost and/or schedule overruns and mitigate the root cause(s) of the overrun • Eliminates the need for Project Managers to create their own Level 2 WBS • Enables Earned Value Management for IT projects • Improves financial reporting/tracking across projects New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—20—August 18, 2010 We are considering extending the standard WBS to level 3 but need more discussion within the Agency before doing so

21. Criteria for Projects to be Subject to NPR 7120.7 New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—21—August 18, 2010

22. Criteria for Projects to be Subject to NPR 7120.7 • Current criteria • New systems/capabilities: $500K or greater total development and implementation cost or affects more than one Center • Modification to or enhancement of existing IT systems or capabilities: $500K or greater total modification/enhancement cost, regardless of how many Centers are affected. • The NASA/ Center CIO deems that the NPR will apply (requires consultation with sponsoring organization) New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—22—August 18, 2010

23. Criteria for Projects to be Subject to NPR 7120.7 • Issues with current criteria • Projects with modest budgets may have trouble meeting all the NPR requirements without submitting substantial waivers • Projects with short durations may have trouble accommodating all the required reviews without submitting substantial waivers • The Agency and Center IT PMBs (Governing Bodies overseeing projects) may not have bandwidth to conduct all the required reviews • We plan to work with NPR 7120.7 stakeholders to come to agreement on whether the current criteria should be modified • One possibility is to create tiers of requirements corresponding to project size/risk/importance/etc. New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—23—August 18, 2010

24. Summary • Continual Improvement - the Agency OCIO continually identifies, solicits, and implements modifications to our policies to advance the success of the Agency’s IT programs and projects • Alignment – the Agency OCIO strives to align IT policies and procedures with our Human Space Flight (NPR 7120.5) and Research and Technology (NPR 7120.8) program/project management policies to maintain consistency across NASA New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—24—August 18, 2010

25. Questions/Discussion? New Developments in IT Project Management Policy at NASA—25—August 18, 2010