GAO: NASA Needs PM Discipline

[ Login/Subscribe ]

Features

Departments

PPM

Tools

Executive

Resources

About Us

Home > Departments > News, Views & Issues

GAO: NASA Needs PM Discipline
(March 11, 2009)

New report from Government Accountability Office identifies problems in five areas that can contribute to project cost and schedule issues.

NASA must increase the effectiveness of its project management and adopt better practices that focus on closing gaps in knowledge about requirements, technologies, funding, time and other resources before it makes commitments to large-scale programs, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released March 6.

The report, titled "Projects Need More Disciplined Oversight and Management to Address Key Challenges," assessed 18 projects in NASA’s current portfolio. The GAO found that, in some cases, projects under review spent two to five years and up to $100 million or more before being able to formally set cost and schedule estimates. The GAO also reported that projects in its review had an average delay of 11 months to their launch dates.

In response to the report, NASA asserted that the unique nature of its work and external factors beyond its control make it difficult to apply the same criteria that are applied to other major government acquisitions, particularly those with large production runs.

Please login/register to read the entire article.

Sponsored Announcements and Special Offers

Economical and Effective PMP Certification Training: CertSchool an REP and Price Champion offers 4 Day Bootcamps in New Jersey, Los Angeles, and San Jose for just $750. And Web Based Instructor Led Live PMP Prep classes for $500. Includes lectures, videos & audios to download, sample questions, notes and 36 Contact Hours! Register – FREE PMP Training demo session

Utilize SharePoint for Project Management! – Earn 15 PDUs. Project Integrators, LLC is offering their two-day workshop ‘Essential SharePoint for Project Managers’ in a city near you. Use SharePoint to Improve project collaboration, communication, and reporting. Create robust SharePoint sites for your projects, publish reports online with Excel Services, and create management dashboards. Click to view our current public workshop schedule.

New On-Demand Webinar "Driving Product Strategy From The Top Down". If you manage or are involved with project and product decisions for multiple products, this webcast will provide practical insights and tools to make your job easier. Learn how multiple projects "fit" together, the value customers receive from a portfolio approach, and successful methods in PPM tools. Learn best-practices, communicating strategy, what to consider when making multiple product decisions.

How can your company increase efficiency and maintain a competitive advantage in the PM marketplace? Learn how Oracle's Primavera project portfolio management solutions can help your organization succeed in these tough economic times. This free whitepaper paper highlights important elements and benefits of standardizing business processes and how PPM can help your business and technology succeed throughout the company.

CertSchool Training
IBM
Instantis
Jama Software
Keller Graduate School
Management Concepts
Microsoft
Oracle
PMI
PM War Stories
PowerSteering Software
PPM Executive Newsletter
RMC Project Mgmt
Stanford University

March 2010:

How much do your tools, processes and PMO help or hinder you?