Mr. Stardust's Wild Ride
Effective budget planning considers not only how much money a project requires, but also when the money is needed. Many times, project success isn't about not making mistakes; it's having the courage to face mistakes and take action.

Lessons Learned Again and Again
Project scope drives project cost and schedule.

Horse Trading
Use horse trading so as NOT to undercut the advantages of a fixed-price contract.

Trading on Trust
Coping with changes in a fixed price contract requires trust above all between government and contractor. I did what I was supposed to, saying that I thought it was best for the program to convert to a fixed-price contract.... He hesitated, but because he trusted my judgment, he agreed and we settled on a price and modified the contract to fixed price. Use horse trading so as NOT to undercut the advantages of a fixed-price contract.

Listening to That Voice Inside
The more we share and discuss decisions based on intuition, the more we learn about when and how to employ it.

Right-Rapid-Rough
Use all your senses to attack a problem. In design work, embrace failure as a means to ultimate success.

Simplify and Succeed
Never rule out a low-tech solution when there is one that will work just as well as high tech.

The Lawn Dart
Solutions to work-related problems may lie in some totally un-work-related situations. In a problem-solving situation, all ideas — no matter how "out there" — should be considered.

A Tale of Two Change Agents
Willingness to challenge the status quo is often the most important factor in project success.

Four Ways I Battle the Untenable Status Quo
Change things you can control.

Some Thoughts on Challenging the Status Quo
If you challenge the status quo, you must be willing to own the results, good or bad.

Imagining the Future
Both organizations and the individuals in them need to think about how to manage their futures.

Learning to Drive the Mars Rovers
3-D simulations and a months-long apprenticeship teach trainees to drive the Mars exploration rovers.

Earned Value-Added
This feeling was expressed by managers reporting: “I'm getting all the data I need” why do I need earned value.

Earning Value Against Resistance
We figured out that we had to anticipate some level of resistance within the organization, especially if they've never done this before.

Bringing Up Baby
You don't want to lose key project knowledge. When a person being replaced has key project knowledge, seek ways to make sure that knowledge remains available to you. Be sensitive during transitions. You don't know how emotional fallout will affect the project. Allow people to step out of their roles with dignity. Don't overlook the teammates of a leader who is replaced. It is not your job to convince them that this is the right decision, but you should respect their feelings toward their colleague.

One Way or Another
Don't second guess yourself into a state of inaction because you can't anticipate every contingency. Part of planning ahead should include allowing oneself the flexibility to rethink the plan and improvise if necessary.

Thank You, Judy
A lack of integrity makes a bad situation between government and contractor even worse. Organizations benefit when experienced practitioners share their stories liberally. Manage through your organizational values when making tough decisions.

Two Outs, Bottom of the Ninth
Objectives can remain constant, but you may need to be flexible in the way they are achieved. The project leaders with the best interpersonal skills are the ones you should rely on to stabilize the project during tense times.

Less of Me
Resist the urge to micromanage. Inclusion and openness go a lot further than arrogance and exclusion. Be open to team members who bring their own expertise to a project.

From Planned Football to Spontaneous Basketball
Prepare your people to respond quickly to frequent and unanticipated changes.

Open the Door and They Will Come
Put together a team to lead the change, and make sure they can articulate a unified message.

Reforming a Mindset
People will draw inspiration from seeing you "walk" what you "talk" and thereby follow your lead. Let contractors know their work is appreciated by recognizing and rewarding their contributions. Successful change starts with managing from a complimentary set of principles.

Communicating Science
Communicating across scientific disciplines involves more than words.

A Powerful Communication Tool: The Engineering White Paper
A chief engineer uses a white paper to test his logic and communicate effectively with other members of a technical review team.

Establishing a Presence
Being there in person helped to develop a team persona in which we were really aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Documentation: No Substitute for Communication (Don't Confuse Documentation with Communication)
Like most other young engineers, I learned to use the RFI as a weapon in the ongoing battle between owners, or their designer, and the construction contractors.

No Launch Before Its Time
I remember a member of the crew asking me, "Is this normal?" And in my experience, it wasn't.

Rapid Prototyping for Success on SAGE III
There's nothing as frustrating as knowing your triple-redundant system needs to attach three wires to their dual-redundant two.

The Camera Never Lies
As I looked back over the last five years, it was clear that some of our program managers consistently generated great results and others did not.

Hanging On by a Thread
To move the aircraft about on the ground, as well as to stabilize it during take off and landing, we needed to come up with a lightweight solution.

Engineering Memos
Many believe, including me, that the advent of email and PowerPoint has, in some respects, eroded our culture of engineering communication.

Would You Raise Your Hand?
Being able to speak freely without repercussion is an important element in any team or project. Sometimes our negative fantasies keep us from making positive contributions to our team or project.

The Clock Is Ticking
Close communication between the project team and the customer facilitates a continuous learning process. Knowing when to be flexible and when to be firm in addressing requirements is a hallmark of successful project management.

The Storyboard's Big Picture
A storyboard makes certain that team members are all working toward the same goal.

PERT Charts Take Precedence
PERT charts provide a virtual model of a project and communicate plans and project status to the team and customers.

Communicating By Walking Around
The informal, communicating by walking around is probably the most effective control strategy.

Customer Responsiveness
Question: Given that trust and openness are critical to a successful contractor-customer relationship, what do you do as the project manager for the contractor when you cannot develop a trusting relationship with your customer? The gravity of not doing a test depends on what your responsibility is towards the project. It is project manager's responsibility to resolve communication conflicts with the customer.

What Has He Done for Me Lately?
No news at all can cause management to question what the team is doing to move the project forward.

Hot Meetings
What distressed my colleague who stood outside the door was that he assumed if people were raising their voices at each other they must be fighting. Nobody was fighting. There was enough trust and respect among team members that we understood it was okay to express ourselves in this way. When there is trust and respect among team members, it is legitimate to express opinions passionately.

Open Newsletters
Share your feelings openly about the project, and ultimately others will, too.

When to Say No
Saying "no" to a project can sometimes be an affirmation of your integrity. Do your homework prior to important decisions — or else risk making career-damaging mistakes.

From PowerPoint Slides to Powerful Stories
Ambiguity is best dealt with using face-to-face communication. Stories are powerful knowledge sharing tools because they contextualize unique situations to explain general principles.

Fly Safe, But Fly
One thing was certain, the airplane and the program had to be grounded until we could figure out what had happened.

Mr. Stardust's Wild Ride
Effective budget planning considers not only how much money a project requires, but also when the money is needed. Many times, project success isn't about not making mistakes; it's having the courage to face mistakes and take action.

Lessons from the Dark Side
Luck still plays a part in success or failure, but luck favors the competent, hard-working manager.

Project Management: The Television Show
Admit mistakes, distill all the learning from it you can, and then move on.

Thanksgiving Hocus Pocus
Emotional intelligence is critical for effective leadership, especially during a crisis. Improvisation and responsiveness are critical in meeting a blitz schedule. Worrying about accountability in the thick of a crisis is counterproductive behavior.

The "Tried and True"
When someone has to leave the project because of differences, sharing simple social occasions goes a long way towards healing hard feelings.

Loss and Recovery
When a team is hurt and grieving, perhaps the strongest thing a leader can do is express his pain to them. Honor the achievement of working together to achieve a goal as much as you do the accomplishment of the goal.

My Big Wall
A can-do attitude and willingness to take risks should not distort your judgment to know whether to abort a project in mid-course.

Hangar Bash
Sometimes a failure early on can enhance the chances of success later.

There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons — The Don Quixote Complex
Maintain focus no matter how attractive an objective outside the focal plane may seem. Stay healthy by separating your ego, or your self worth, from your job. When you make a mistake, learn to forgive yourself and move on.

The Knowledge Notebook — The Other Frontiers of Space
While we at NASA are very aware of research and activities related to every aspect of outer space, there are other kinds of space that have been gaining the attention of organizational researchers and practitioners.

Right On Time, Radically
Nurturing a collaborative culture on a project can go a long way towards achieving tangible costs and schedule results. Manage expectations, not only from the people working for you, but for the key people, i.e. stakeholders, that are above you. We had gone from a hierarchical, structured environment, to teams who had the trust, confidence, and openness to stop in the hallways to discuss problems and make decisions without having to worry about any repercussions if they didn't pass everything through their management team each time.

A Gentle Touch
A gentle, or quiet, approach may work best in establishing trust with a customer from a different "project-cultural" milieu. Consider "auditing by walking around" as an approach to reviewing the state of a project.

Is There a Perfect Organization?
Change is a great opportunity to rejuvenate. Cultures do exist that respect the knowledge of the practitioners and the power of team.

My Future Revisited
In today's NASA, apprenticeship is gone, replaced by accelerated learning programs.

Our Man in Kauai
Cultural factors can have major impact on the project, so adjust to the demands of the local culture. Without Dave's karaoke parties we probably still would have eventually ingratiated ourselves with the community, but developing a social relationship certainly broke the ice and formed a basis of trust. It helps to think broadly when thinking of how communication can affect project success.

Three Screws Missing
Collocation helps to overcome cultural differences and provide a unified sense of purpose.

Warning: Projects May Be Closer Than They Appear
It was a crazy time. I lost 20 pounds. My team kept asking, "What happened to our development manager?"

Give It to Chuck
A project manager must trust his team. As the overall team leader you must allow team members to take the lead on issues in which they clearly have the expertise to get the job done. Allow team members to take the lead where they have the expertise to get the job done.

Less of Me
Resist the urge to micromanage. Inclusion and openness go a lot further than arrogance and exclusion. Be open to team members who bring their own expertise to a project.

The One Thing You Need to Know
Allow team leaders to take the lead on issues where you do not have the same expertise. A project manager must trust his team. As the overall team leader you must allow team members to take the lead on issues in which they clearly have an expertise you do not. On projects with a great deal of uncertainty it is best not to spell out requirements too early.

Pin the Deputy's Badge on Me
Gaining the trust of your followers will grant you more influence than any formal authority. Soft is hard. Gaining the trust of your followers will grant you more influence than any formal authority. To try and do more with less sometimes you have to lead by following.

Imagination, Motivation, and Leadership Make Visions Real
Great ideas and great leaders can motivate inspired work.

The Impact of Fear on Project Success
Fear may not make your employees work harder; it may actually cause them to hide the truth, which can lead to project failure.

A Little Goes a Long Way
Encourage people to define their own workspace as a means of increasing their productivity. Leaders lead by serving their people.

Saturday with Sinatra
Improve the environment at work so that you enjoy being there. Sometimes leadership is as simple as modeling a good work ethic and acting on common sense.

100 Lessons Learned for Project Managers
More than 100 lessons that Madden collected over the course of his long and distinguished career.

Grins and Giggles: The Launch Pad to High Performance
Shared experiences create space where team members can get to know one another, and discover how much they have in common with each other. These commonalities are the building blocks of trusting relationships. And trust is the foundation required to build a high performance team. With a high performance team, you can accomplish anything. Play can stimulate a cycle of solving problems and uncovering new ones. Regardless of your position on the team, you can create the fun and energy needed to build high performance teams.

Dressing Down
Smiles and giggles reduce stress. They also renew energy and trust in ourselves and others.

The Project Manager's Tool Kit
A sense of humor is an important tool all project managers can learn to use.

Cassini-Huygens: International Cooperation for Astronomical Achievement
Collaborating with foreign space agencies has its own unique challenges.

MITRE: The Collaborative Landscape
How practice, culture, and technology combine to support knowledge sharing.

Everything I Needed to Know About Project Management I Learned in a Cockpit
Project managers can learn important lessons from experienced pilots.

Performance as Promised: Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Proactive risk management and including the whole project team in design and development produce high performance and cost savings.

Finding a Way: The Spitzer Space Telescope Story
Openness to new ideas made it possible to launch the Spitzer telescope for a fraction of the original estimated cost.

Learning to Drive the Mars Rovers
3-D simulations and a months-long apprenticeship teach trainees to drive the Mars exploration rovers.

Old Lessons for a New Generation
Project management lessons from the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory Project. Realistic planning and effective communication are key.

Straight to the Source
A hands-on approach that opens lines of communication between management and fabrication teams gets a project back on schedule.

Old Journey, New Heights
I learned some valuable lessons from this remarkably diverse group of talented and committed people who are largely responsible for making the project a success.

The Knowledge Stealing Initiative?
I felt as though I was blindfolded at a fast-moving sporting event and the play- by-play was being described to me by many others around me.

A Leader, Not a Hero
Somebody told me that it takes patience to be a Program Manager. I thought, "Well, I'll work on that."

Putting Patience to the Test
I had made some serious errors in judgment, and I was kicking myself mentally while steeling myself for dealing with the repercussions.

In Search of the Ideal Project Manager
The first project manager had a reputation as a tough, hard-nosed manager and he lived up to that reputation in person.

The Power of Story: Dressing Up the Naked Truth
Story is one of the most respectful ways to share knowledge and, thus, one of the most effective because it allows people to come to their own conclusions.

A New Spin
My message to the team was, "This is a good mission. Don't look down. Together, we'll find a way out of this."

Managing History: A Practicum
Leverage your resources to create win-win situations for both you and your team members. Because moving from team member to manager changes responsibilities, you may need to develop different communication strategies for dealing with people you already know. Identify those people whose judgment you trust and be willing to seek out their advice.

Small Wins
Producing interim results while building support for the project along the way makes ultimate success more likely.

Tipping the Balance
Knowledge sharing isn't something that you do to people. It is something you do with people.

Transfer Wisdom Workshops: Coming to a NASA Center Near You
To cultivate a knowledge sharing community, it is critical to have grassroots support from your customers.

Thank You, Judy
A lack of integrity makes a bad situation between government and contractor even worse. Organizations benefit when experienced practitioners share their stories liberally. Manage through your organizational values when making tough decisions.

The Story of JPL Stories
Our most important knowledge is transferred through our stories.

So This Is Knowledge Sharing
By sharing their knowledge experienced project managers encourage less experienced project managers to reflect on their own experiences. Ensure that the review process is seen as feedback from independent and supportive experts.

So Much Depends Upon a Pickup Truck
Researchers and practitioners can collaborate to the benefit of both.

From PowerPoint Slides to Powerful Stories
Ambiguity is best dealt with using face-to-face communication. Stories are powerful knowledge sharing tools because they contextualize unique situations to explain general principles.

Stories As Agents of Change
Project managers should set aside time for telling stories.

Managing a Critical, Fast-Turnaround Project
Clarity about the task and open communication helped speed development of a system required for the shuttle's return to flight.

Leaders' Responsibility to Develop Future Leaders
Project leaders need to ensure project success and provide career development opportunities for promising team members.

Profile of a Leader — Orlando Figueroa
Nearly three decades of project and program management have taught Federal Employee of the Year Figueroa that respect, integrity, and focus are the foundation of project and program success.

Warning: Projects May Be Closer Than They Appear
It was a crazy time. I lost 20 pounds. My team kept asking, "What happened to our development manager?"

A Glass Can Be Half Full — Even in Microgravity
The project team's response to this challenge taught me how resilient people and projects can be when you give them the chance.

Walk the Walk
My division manager called me into his office and said, "Bob, I really need your help."

Getting the Cows on Their Feet
Despite our best efforts, we weren't getting anywhere at all. If anything, we were going backwards.

Bringing Up Baby
You don't want to lose key project knowledge. When a person being replaced has key project knowledge, seek ways to make sure that knowledge remains available to you. Be sensitive during transitions. You don't know how emotional fallout will affect the project. Allow people to step out of their roles with dignity. Don't overlook the teammates of a leader who is replaced. It is not your job to convince them that this is the right decision, but you should respect their feelings toward their colleague.

Radical Is Temporary
During a project life cycle, you must examine and question what management approaches are appropriate in the current phase. To get maximum value out of meetings, make sure that the tenor of the group is cooperative enough so that everyone feels like they can express their views.

Walking a Fine Line
Project sponsors must be prepared to move from monitoring to intervening when a project runs into trouble. Timing is everything; a project sponsor must recognize both when intervention is necessary and when it is no longer needed. Effective managers demonstrate leadership by supporting their teams — including managing-by-walking-around and serving as a "soldier" when needed.

A Little Goes a Long Way
Encourage people to define their own workspace as a means of increasing their productivity. Leaders lead by serving their people.

Reflections from the Field: — Pragmatic Leadership Advice from Donald Rumsfeld
Pragmatic leadership cuts across all disciplines and project venues.

Thanksgiving Hocus Pocus
Emotional intelligence is critical for effective leadership, especially during a crisis. Improvisation and responsiveness are critical in meeting a blitz schedule. Worrying about accountability in the thick of a crisis is counterproductive behavior.

Test What You Fly?
Before you break a rule, consider the ramifications and get buy-in from all major stakeholders. Lead by seeking cooperation and you are much more likely to get buy-in. Test what you fly doesn't always apply.

Two Outs, Bottom of the Ninth
Objectives can remain constant, but you may need to be flexible in the way they are achieved. The project leaders with the best interpersonal skills are the ones you should rely on to stabilize the project during tense times.

Loss and Recovery
When a team is hurt and grieving, perhaps the strongest thing a leader can do is express his pain to them. Honor the achievement of working together to achieve a goal as much as you do the accomplishment of the goal.

When My Name Suddenly Was “Murphy”
Learning by doing expedites doing something well. Letting people know you have confidence in them will generally make them more self-motivated and confident in themselves.

Saturday with Sinatra
Improve the environment at work so that you enjoy being there. Sometimes leadership is as simple as modeling a good work ethic and acting on common sense.

There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons — The Don Quixote Complex
Maintain focus no matter how attractive an objective outside the focal plane may seem. Stay healthy by separating your ego, or your self worth, from your job. When you make a mistake, learn to forgive yourself and move on.

Standing Offer
Don't be so proud that you can't accept an offer of help from someone qualified to give you help. In preparing for a review, take advantage of all resources available, including seasoned veterans.

Pin the Deputy's Badge on Me
Gaining the trust of your followers will grant you more influence than any formal authority. Soft is hard. Gaining the trust of your followers will grant you more influence than any formal authority. To try and do more with less sometimes you have to lead by following.

I Would Prefer Not
The secret to long-term leadership is sustained passion for your work.

Reforming a Mindset
People will draw inspiration from seeing you "walk" what you "talk" and thereby follow your lead. Let contractors know their work is appreciated by recognizing and rewarding their contributions. Successful change starts with managing from a complimentary set of principles.

Listening to the Voice Inside
To make things happen you sometimes have to fight for what you believe in. Knowing what NOT to do can be as important as knowing what to do.

How Did I Get Here?
People develop primarily by working with and for experienced people, and by seeking feedback. The best preparation for leadership is by experiencing a variety of tasks.

Success Through Failure
The noted engineering writer discusses how failure shapes good design and repeated success can ultimately lead to disaster.