Mars Climate Orbiter Project Management Analysis
Transcript of Mars Climate Orbiter Project Management Analysis
MARS CLIMATE ORBITER MISSION
PROJECT MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY
BY:
FRANCISCO CEBALLOS
NELSON ROSARIO
BILLY GUERRERO
RICARDO CABRAL
• Background
- Why the interest in Mars?
- Mars missions under Faster, Better, Cheaper (FBC) approach.
- Account of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) failure.
• Project Management Analysis
- Human Resource
MCO’s personnel characteristics and lessons learned.
- Communication
MCO’s communication deficiencies and lessons learned.
- Quality
MCO’s quality issues and lessons learned.
- Risk
MCO’s risk management errors and lessons learned.
• Conclusions
• Questions
Outline
Why Mars?
MISSION STATISTICS
FASTER BETTER CHEAPER (FBC)
Faster Better Cheaper
Internal and
external pressures
Much emphasis on few missions
Shrinking budget
Utilizing new technology
Creating smaller spacecraft and more frequent
missions
Accepting prudent risk where warranted by
return
Reducing cycle time by eliminating inefficient
and redundant processes
Utilizing proven engineering and
management practices to maximize success
• Lockheed Martin Astronautic was the main contractor and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
was the administrator of all these missions.
• Total cost of the Mars missions under FBC of $921.6 Millions.
• Under FBC 3 out off 6 Mars missions failed.
• Study Mars climate
• Monitor daily weather and atmospheric conditions
• Record changes on Mars surface
• Look for evidence of past climate changes
• Relay communications between MPL and Earth
• Expected to operate for 5 years (1999-2004)
MCO Mission Objectives
• At Cape Canaveral, FL on December 11th, 1998
• Delta II Lite Launch Vehicle
• Launch sequence lasted 42 minutes
• Hoffman transfer to Mars
• Earth-Mars launch window consideredevery 2 years
MCO Launch
• 416 million miles over 9 months
• 4 Trajectory Correction Maneuvers
• Anomalies in trajectory caughtbut dismissed
MCO Cruise
• Measures thruster performance
• Logs thruster firing events on file
• Installed both in ground & spacecraft
• Wrong unit in log file
• Trajectory modeling from file
• Corrections issued based on this modeling
• Thrusters fired 4.45 times shorter
“Small Forces” Software
Planned trajectory
Actual trajectory
CriticalAltitude
Human Resource
Management
Develop Human
Resource Plan
Acquire Project Team
Develop Project Team
Manage Project Team
Develop Human Resource Plan
• The PM is responsible of making sure the team members have the appropriate training according to the task they will be performing.
• The PM must clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of the team.
Acquire project team• The PM must evaluate the risk of resources becoming
unavailable.
Training
• The Incident, Surprise, Anomaly (ISA) procedure.
• The ground software development process.
• The Mission Operations Software Interface Specification (SIS).
• The MCO attitude control system and related subsystem parameters.
• The Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) -5.
Staffing
• The Mars Surveyor Operations Project (MSOP) was running 3 missions simultaneously (MGS, MCO, MPL).
• The absence of a mission assurance manager.
• Absence of mission science personnel in the management process.
Roles and responsibilities
• Hesitancy and wavering was perceived on the people attempting to answer these questions:
Who is in charge? Who is the Mission Manager?
• The lack of an adequate systems engineering function.
Lessons Learned
• The team should be provided with proper training and detailed information regarding systems which may have a high impact on the well behavioral of the project.
• The project manager should identify or provide backup personnel that could be available to serve in some of the critical roles when needed.
• The human resource department should provide a staff with well defined roles and responsibilities.
Communication Management
Distribute Information
IdentifyStakeholders
Report Performance
Plan Communications
MangeStakeholderExpectations
Communications ManagementTHE PROBLEM START IN FBC
Communications ManagementInterfaces and Relationships
Communications ManagementNASA- JPL RELATIONSHIP
Communications ManagementNASA- JPL RELATIONSHIP
Absence of a single interface resulted in multiple inputs to the JPL Mars Program
Input 1
Input 2
Input 3
Input 3
Input 2
Input 1
Communications ManagementJPL-LMA RELATIONSHIP
RISK
Communications Management• COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
Communications ManagementLESSONS LEARNED
• Senior management must be receptive to communications of problems and risks.
• A dedicated single interface at NASA Headquarters for the Mars Program is essential.
• Contractor responsibilities must include formal notification to the customer of project risk and deviations.
• Increase the amount of formal and informal face-to-face communications with all team elements and especially for those elements that have critical interfaces.
Quality Management
Plan Quality
Perform Quality
Assurance
Perform Quality Control
• Assess whether correct processes are being followed usingmeasurements from QC
• Determine if organizational & project processes, policies and procedures are being followed
Perform Quality Assurance Process
• Measure quality of deliverables
• Validate deliverables
Perform Quality Control Process
Perform Quality Assurance• Verification & Validation (V&V) procedures not followed
• No user testing of the code
• Poor Code review process
• Non-conformance with SIS
• Increasingly frequent anomalous events disregarded
Issue TrackingSummary
Perform Quality Control
• Insufficient rigor interface control process
•Global issue-tracking database not usedfor anomalies
• Issues left unresolved
•Need to improve quality not identified
Identification
Review
Solve
Lessons Learned
Quality Lessons Learned
• Perform thorough code review
• Metrification
• Develop comprehensive mission requirements down to subsystem level
• Iteratively verify mission requirements conformance
Risk
Management
Identify
Risk
Perform
Qualitative Risk
Analysis
Plan Risk
Management
Perform
Qualitative Risk
Analysis
Plan
Risk
Response
Monitor
And
Control Risk
Risk Management Overview
• Identify uncertainty, positive and negative.
• It’s comprised of six sequential processes: Plan Risk Management, Identify Risks,
Perform Qualitative Risks Analysis, Perform Quantitative Risks Analysis, Plan Risk
Responses and Monitor and Control Risks.
• Starts at initiation and finish with project closure.
• It’s iterative, ones planned, should be reassessed and control.
• Could impact costs, schedule, scope, quality, customer’s satisfaction and stakeholders
interests.
• When it’s integrated in a project prevents unnecessary threats and promote wanted
opportunities.
• Unmitigated risks has an owner with a clear contingency plan, launch depending on
risk triggers.
Risk Management Failures
• No a sound Risk Management plan in place.
• FBC didn’t describe clearly what were prudent risks.
• Each project manager interpreted risks differently under FBC policy.
• MCO was significantly underfunded compared to other comparable missions.
• System engineering didn’t play its rolling in help in risks identification and management.
• Project managers put more emphasis on lower cost and
schedule, and more ambitious scope, while risks increase
was not considered.
• No proper procedure to implement TCM-5 as an
emergency plan.
Lessons Learned
• Risks caused by deviation from project management principle shouldn’t be allow.
• All team members should know what is acceptable risks.
• All mission should perform the six processes of risk management.
• In all project meetings and reviews risks mitigation plan should be reported and reassessed.
Success
Cost
Time
Risk
Scope
• Risk management a fourth dimension of project management.
• Earn value management could be applied to risk management.
• All unmitigated risks should have a risk owner and a clear
contingency plan.
C O N C L U S I O N S
• "Faster, better, cheaper" missions place too much emphasis on cost andschedule reduction and too little on management, oversight, leadership andevaluating risk.
• Key positions in the staff and well trained personnel are critical points thatany PM must not sacrifice because of reducing cost strategies.
• A routine forum should be established for informal communication between allteam members at the same time so everyone can hear what is happening.
• The absence of a sound Risk Management Plan prevented that the missioncould overcome any important threat, reducing significantly its chances forsuccess.
• A comprehensive contingency plan to execute TCM-5 could have increasedthe probability of success of the mission.
QUESTIONS
THANK YOU !!