Download or read book NASA written by United States Government Accountability Office and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-10-09 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report provides GAO's annual snapshot for 2017 of how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisition projects. In March 2016, GAO found that projects continued a general positive trend of limiting cost and schedule growth, maturing technologies, and stabilizing designs, but that NASA faced several challenges that could affect its ability to effectively manage its portfolio. The explanatory statement of the House Committee on Appropriations accompanying the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 included a provision for GAO to prepare status reports on selected large-scale NASA programs, projects, and activities. This is GAO's ninth annual assessment. This report describes (1) the cost and schedule performance of NASA's portfolio of major projects, (2) the maturity of technologies and stability of project designs at key milestones, and (3) NASA's progress in implementing initiatives to manage acquisition risk and potential challenges for project management and oversight. This report also includes assessments of NASA's 21 major projects, each with a life-cycle cost of over $250 million. To conduct its review, GAO analyzed cost, schedule, technology maturity, design stability, and other data; reviewed monthly project status reports; and interviewed NASA officials.
Download or read book NASA Assessments of Major Projects 706505 written by and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book NASA written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is GAO's annual assessment of NASA's major projects. This report provides a snapshot of how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisitions. In 2013, GAO reported that the performance of NASA's major projects had improved since GAO's first assessment in 2009, due, in part, to some under performing projects launching and some demonstrating progress meeting practices that GAO has reported decrease cost and schedule risk. In response to an explanatory statement of the House Committee on Appropriations accompanying the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, this report assesses (1) the current status of NASA's portfolio of major projects, (2) NASA's progress in developing and maturing critical technologies (3) efforts NASA has taken to improve design stability of its projects, and (4) any challenges to NASA's management of the portfolio. GAO assessed 2013 and 2014 data on NASA's 18 major projects and the Commercial Crew program all with an estimated life-cycle cost of over $250 million, such as data on the projects' cost, schedule, technology maturity, design stability, and contracts; analyzed monthly project status reports; and interviewed NASA and contractor officials. GAO is not making any new recommendations in this report, but provides further evidence to support the importance of continuing to take action on recommendations GAO has made in prior reports. NASA generally agreed with GAO's findings."--Highlights.
Download or read book NASA written by Gene L. Dodaro and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-06 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NASA plans to invest billions in the coming years in science and exploration space flight initiatives. In the past, NASA has had difficulty meeting cost, schedule, and performance objectives for many of its projects. The need to effectively manage projects will gain even more importance as NASA seeks to manage its wide-ranging portfolio in an increasingly constrained fiscal environment. This report provides an independent assessment of selected NASA projects. This report compared projects against best practice criteria for system development including attainment of knowledge on technologies and design. The projects assessed are considered major acquisitions by NASA -- each with a life-cycle cost of over $250 million. Charts and tables.
Download or read book NASA written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GAO's work has shown that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) large-scale projects, while producing groundbreaking research and advancing our understanding of the universe, tend to cost more and take longer to develop than planned, and are often approved without evidence of a sound business case. Although space development is complex and difficult by nature, GAO has found that inherent risks are compounded by the need for better management and oversight practices. GAO has designated NASA's acquisition management a high risk area. This report provides a snapshot of how well NASA is planning and executing its acquisition of selected large-scale projects. It also provides observations about the performance of NASA's major projects and project management, outlines steps NASA is taking to improve its acquisitions, identifies challenges that contribute to cost and schedule growth, and assesses 21 NASA projects, each with an estimated life-cycle cost of over $250 million. GAO is not making any new recommendations in this report. Instead GAO is issuing another report concurrently (GAO-11- 364R) that describes in more detail some of the issues identified in this report, such as transparency in project costs and lack of a consistent design metric, and will make recommendations to address the issues.
Download or read book NASA written by Cristina Chaplain and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-11 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NASA plans to invest billions in the coming years in science and exploration space flight initiatives. The scientific and technical complexities inherent in NASA's mission create great challenges in managing its projects and controlling costs. In the past, NASA has had difficulty meeting cost, schedule, and performance objectives for some of its projects. The need to effectively manage projects will gain even more importance as NASA seeks to manage its portfolio in an increasingly constrained fiscal environ. This is an independent assessment of selected NASA projects. It compares projects against best practice criteria for system dev¿t. incl. attainment of knowledge on technologies and design as well as various aspects of program mgmt. Illus.
Download or read book NASA written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report provides GAO's annual snapshot of how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisition projects. In March 2015, GAO found that projects continued a general positive trend of limiting cost and schedule growth, maturing technologies, and stabilizing designs, but that NASA faced several challenges that could affect its ability to effectively manage its portfolio. The explanatory statement of the House Committee on Appropriations accompanying the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 included a provision for GAO to prepare project status reports on selected large-scale NASA programs, projects, and activities. This is GAO's eighth annual assessment of NASA's major projects. This report describes (1) the cost and schedule performance of NASA's portfolio of major projects, (2) the maturity of technologies and stability of project designs at key milestones, and (3) NASA's progress in implementing initiatives to manage acquisition risk and potential challenges for project management and oversight. This report also includes assessments of NASA's 18 major projects, each with a life-cycle cost of over $250 million. To conduct its review, GAO analyzed cost, schedule, technology maturity, design stability, and other data; reviewed monthly project status reports; and interviewed NASA officials.
Download or read book Major Projects at NASA written by Eloy D'Aramitz and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a snapshot of how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisitions -- an area that been on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) high risk list since 1990. Over the past 4 years, a range of projects such as robotic probes designed to explore the Martian surface and telescopes intended to explore the universe have been reviewed. NASA has launched many of the projects and most of the projects are returning science results as intended. For example, the Dawn spacecraft reached the solar system's second largest asteroid, Vesta, in July 2011 and is beaming back images and data to scientists about how the solar system formed. Another project called GRAIL, launched in September 2011, and its twin spacecraft recently entered orbit around the moon to begin its measurements of lunar gravity.
Download or read book NASA Assessment of Large Scale Projects written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book NASA written by Cristina Chaplain and published by . This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2014, GAO reported that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) major projects continued a general positive trend of limiting cost and schedule growth, maturing technologies, and stabilizing designs, but that NASA faced several challenges that could affects its ability to effectively manage its portfolio, such as completing a series of complex and expensive projects within constrained budgets and competing priorities. This 2015 report assesses (1) the current performance of NASA's portfolio of major projects; (2) NASA's progress in developing and maturing critical technologies and stabilizing design; and (3) NASA's initiatives to reduce acquisition risk and work that remains to strengthen management of the agency's largest, most complex projects. Table and figures. This is a print on demand report.
Download or read book NASA written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to invest billions in the coming years in science and exploration space flight initiatives. The scientific and technical complexities inherent in NASA's mission create great challenges in managing its projects and controlling costs. In the past, NASA has had difficulty meeting cost, schedule, and performance objectives for many of its projects. The need to effectively manage projects will gain even more importance as NASA seeks to manage its wide-ranging portfolio in an increasingly constrained fiscal environment. This report provides an independent assessment of selected NASA projects. In conducting this work, GAO compared projects against best practice criteria for system development including attainment of knowledge on technologies and design. GAO also identified other programmatic challenges that were contributing factors in cost and schedule growth of the projects reviewed. The projects assessed are considered major acquisitions by NASA -- each with a life-cycle cost of over $250 million. No recommendations are provided in this report; however, GAO has reported extensively and made recommendations on NASA acquisition management in the past. GAO has designated NASA's acquisition management as a high risk area since 1990.
Download or read book NASA written by Cristina Chaplain and published by . This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 8th annual assessment provides a snapshot of how well the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is planning and executing its major acquisition projects. The 7th annual report found that projects continued a general positive trend of limiting cost and schedule growth, maturing technologies, and stabilizing designs, but that NASA faced several challenges that could affect its ability to effectively manage its portfolio. This report describes (1) the cost and schedule performance of NASA's portfolio of major projects; (2) the maturity of technologies and stability of project designs at key milestones; and (3) NASA's progress in implementing initiatives to manage acquisition risk and potential challenges for project management and oversight. Tables and figures. This is a print on demand report.
Download or read book NASA Assessments of Selected Large Scale Projects written by United States Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GAO assessed 21 NASA projects with a combined life-cycle cost that exceeds $43 billion. Of those 21 projects, 6 were in an early phase of development called formulation, and 15 had entered the implementation phase where cost and schedule baselines were established. Five of the 15 projects in implementation successfully launched in 2011, and two of them met their cost and schedule baselines. NASA's largest science project-the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)-however, has experienced development cost growth of $3.6 billion-or 140 percent-and a schedule delay of over 4 years. While the development cost and schedule for most of the projects in implementation remained relatively stable, the impact of the JWST increases on the portfolio is significant. For example, 14 of the 15 projects currently in implementation, excluding JWST, had an average development cost growth of $79 million-or 14.6 percent-and schedule growth of 8 months from their baselines. With JWST, these numbers increase dramatically to almost 47 percent and 11 months, respectively. Cost and schedule increases within NASA's most technologically advanced and costly projects, such as JWST, can have cascading effects on the rest of NASA's portfolio. For example, the administration has proposed to terminate funding for the joint NASA/ESA EMTGO project, and another large project in our review-the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)-experienced substantial cost overruns that led NASA to take funding from other projects. MSL and JWST account for approximately $11.4 billion-or 51 percent-of the total life-cycle costs for the 15 projects in implementation during our review. Most of the projects that GAO reviewed did not meet technology maturity and design stability best practices criteria, which if followed can lessen cost and schedule risks faced by the project. Specifically, 10 of the 16 projects that held a preliminary design review moved forward without first maturing technologies. In addition, 13 of the 14 projects that held a critical design review did so without first achieving design stability. Some projects reported using other methods to assess design stability. Many of the projects GAO reviewed for this report also experienced challenges in the areas of launch vehicles, contractor management, parts, development partner performance, and funding. For example, nine projects we reviewed reported challenges with launch vehicles, including their increasing cost and availability. New launch vehicles are in development, but have not yet been certified, and another vehicle has failed on its two most recent flights. The agency is continuing its implementation of initiatives to reduce acquisition management risk. One prominent effort is the Joint Cost and Schedule Confidence Level (JCL), a new cost estimation tool that involves a probabilistic analysis of cost, schedule, and risk inputs to arrive at development cost and schedule estimates associated with various confidence levels. Five projects GAO reviewed have completed a JCL. NASA officials stated a few projects have excluded or not fully considered relevant cost inputs and risks, such as launch vehicle costs. GAO was unable to confirm that the five projects that prepared estimates using the JCL were budgeted at the approved confidence level. NASA has not yet launched a project that prepared a JCL; therefore, NASA officials stated it will take several years to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the JCL in improving cost and schedule estimating for its major projects.
Download or read book Major Projects at NASA written by Eloy D'Aramitz and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book provides a snapshot of how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisitions - an area that been on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) high risk list since 1990. Over the past 4 years, a range of projects such as robotic probes designed to explore the Martian surface and telescopes intended to explore the universe have been reviewed. NASA has launched many of the projects and most of the projects are returning science results as intended. For example, the Dawn spacecraft reached the solar system's second largest asteroid, Vesta, in July 2011 and is beaming back images and data to scientists about how the solar system formed. Another project called GRAIL, launched in September 2011, and its twin spacecraft recently entered orbit around the moon to begin its measurements of lunar gravity."--P. [vii].
Download or read book 2019 Reports on NASA Commercial Crew ISS Space Station Astronaut Program and Assessments of Major Projects Including Mars 2020 Europa Clipper JWST Double Asteroid Redirection Test Psyche WFIRST written by National Ae Space Administration (Nasa) and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-06-21 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These reports were issued by the GAO in May and June 2019. NASA Assessments of Major Projects - This report provides GAO's annual snapshot of how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisition projects. GAO previously found that, as of February 2018, the cost and schedule performance of major projects was deteriorating, with 9 of 17 projects in development reporting cost or schedule growth. GAO also found that NASA was likely to continue to see cost and schedule growth, as new, large projects were entering the portfolio while others were taking longer to launch than planned. This deterioration in cost and schedule performance is largely due to integration and test challenges on the James Webb Space Telescope. The Space Launch System program also experienced significant cost growth due to continued production challenges. Further, additional delays are likely for the Space Launch System and its associated ground systems. Senior NASA officials stated that it is unlikely these programs will meet the launch date of June 2020, which already reflects 19 months of delays. These officials told GAO that there are 6 to 12 months of risk associated with that launch date. GAO found some subjectivity in the processes NASA uses to identify and assess critical technologies-those that are required for the project to successfully meet customer requirements-which could understate the development risk that its major projects face. The average number of critical technologies NASA reported increased slightly in 2019, but remains low compared to historical data. However, GAO found inconsistencies in how projects identify critical technologies. For example, the Lucy project determined that operating its solar array in a previously unexplored environment did not warrant identifying it as a critical technology, while the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) project did identify a technology as critical because of its use in a new environment. NASA is planning to clarify its guidance on technology readiness, among other measures. GAO will continue to monitor NASA's efforts in this area.NASA Commercial Crew Program - Both of the Commercial Crew Program's contractors, Boeing and SpaceX, have made progress on their crew transportation systems. However, neither is ready to begin carrying astronauts into space as both continue to experience delays to certification. Certification is a process that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will use to ensure that each contractor's spacecraft, launch vehicle, and ground support systems meet its requirements for human spaceflight before any operational missions to the International Space Station (ISS) can occur. Factors contributing to schedule uncertainty include: Fluctuating schedules. As the contractors continue to build and test hardware-including SpaceX's March 2019 uncrewed test flight- their schedules for certification change frequently. As of May 2019, both contractors had delayed certification nine times, equating to more than 2 years from their original contracts (see figure). This includes several delays since GAO last reported in July 2018.
Download or read book NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Handbook written by Nasa and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-21 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Assessments of Selected Large scale Projects written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is GAO's fourth annual assessment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) large-scale projects. GAO's work has shown that these projects, while producing ground-breaking research and advancing our understanding of the universe, tend to cost more and take longer to develop than planned, and are often approved without evidence of a sound business case. GAO has designated NASA's acquisition management a high risk area."--Highlights.
