Management Module
Space Systems Engineering, version 1.0
Space Systems Engineering: Management Module
Module Purpose: Management
 To discuss the differences between a project
manager’s responsibility and that of a systems
engineer by highlighting the key responsibilities of the
manager.
 To introduce two key management documents: the
project plan and the systems engineering
management plan.
 To understand two types of workforce management:
in-line and matrix.
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Project Management
A Humorous Example
It seems there was a customer in a pet shop who was interested in
acquiring a parrot. And, so the shopkeeper pointed to three kinds of
similar looking parrots that were situated on a perch together. They
were basically identical, and he inquired about the price of the parrots.
And, the shopkeeper said, “Well, the parrot on the left cost $500.” And, he
thought that was a remarkable price for a parrot, and asked about why.
And, the shopkeeper said, “Well, that parrot on the left has great
computer skills. So, he knows how to run a computer.”
And, he inquired about the second parrot, and was told that the second
parrot was a thousand dollars, because, not only did he possess all the
skills that the first parrot had, but he could also do math and physics.
And, when he inquired about the third – of course, he’s increasingly
concerned about these prices, he inquired about the third parrot, he
discovered the third parrot was priced at two thousand dollars. And,
when he asked the shopkeeper why, what special skills does this third
parrot posses, the shopkeeper said, “Well, to be honest with you, I’ve
never seen him do anything. But, the other parrots tend to defer to him,
and they call him the ‘project manager’.”
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The Project Manager’s Role
Manage and Control the Project
 Maintain oversight of all Project activities
 Review and report technical, schedule
and financial status
 Ensure timely detection and correction
of problems
 Assess cost/work progress against plans
 Ensure that all work complies with
institutional, sponsor, and any other
applicable policies, requirements and
practices
Manage and Control the Project Risk
 Assess progress and develop
projections (technical, schedule, cost)
 Ensure timely detection and mitigation of
threats
The decision authority
who must balance the
project’s 3 variables:
technical, cost, and
schedule.
 Control and guard scope
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How Does the Project Manager Deliver?
 Start with a realistic product
 Select a talented team
 Motivate the team
 Clear communications internal
and external to the project
 Ask penetrating questions
 Track the schedule and cost
 Prioritize work
 Carefully manage margins
 Understand and balance risk
across the system
Space Systems Engineering: Management Module
Note: for a government project,
• Create a viable acquisition strategy
• Maintain good contractor relations
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In Comparison, What is a Systems
Engineer Responsible for?
The Many Roles…
1. Requirements owner
2. System designer
3. System analyst
4. Validation / Verification engineer
5. Logistics / operations engineer
6. Glue among the subsystems
7. Customer interface
8. Technical manager
9. Information manager
10. Process engineer
11. Coordinator
12. Classified ads system engineer
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Source:
Twelve Roles of
Systems Engineers,
Sarah Sheard
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Management Documents
Project Plan
Systems Engineering Management Plan
Space Systems Engineering: Management Module
Project Plan
Requirements
The document that establishes the project’s
baseline for implementation, signed by the project
manager and his/her management chain.
Defines: Who? What? When? How? How much?
Work
Breakdown
Structure
Resources
Staff, materials, facilities
Activities
Time-phased
Budget
Schedule
Baseline
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Pause and Learn Opportunity
Review an example Project Plan with the class, using
the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Draft
Project Plan.
Reference document: DRAFT JWST Program-Project Plan
(in process - 30 Oct).doc
Space Systems Engineering: Management Module
Systems Engineering Management Plan
(SEMP)
 The SEMP is the subordinate document to the Project Plan
 The SEMP defines for all project participants how the project will
be technically managed within the constraints established by the
Project Plan.
 All other technical documents, such as a configuration
management plan, depend on the SEMP and must comply with it.
 For a NASA-managed project, the civil servant systems
engineering team will produce the primary SEMP.
• Each contractor involved in the project will produce a contract-unique
SEMP that describes how it will manage in accordance with both its
contract and the NASA project’s technical management practices.
 For additional information on the contents of a SEMP, see the
NASA Systems Engineering Handbook, 2007, Appendix J: SEMP
Content Outline. (and backup slides for example SEMP outline.)
 Also see the JWST SEMP for an example (JWST_000872 SEMP
Baseline.doc).
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People Management
Direct Project-Line Management
Matrix Management
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Traditional Project/Product-Line
Organization
Characterized as a project or product managed as a self-sufficient
organization relative to the entire system design life cycle. Each project
will contain its own management structure, its own engineering function,
its own production capability, its own support function, and so on. The
project manager has the authority and the responsibility for all aspects
of the project, whether it is a success or a failure.
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Matrix Organization Structure
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Matrix Organization Characteristics
 Functional organizations, such as engineering or safety, “own”
the personnel with expertise in particular areas.
 The functional organizations assign technical personnel from
their pool to specific projects as those projects identify their skill
needs.
 Both the project manager and the functional division manager
agree to the duration of the assignment, the tasks to be
accomplished, and the basis for the individual’s performance
review.
 Proven to be the most effective use of technical personnel.
Project management only pays for the personnel on an asneeded basis; has access to broad talent pool; can phase work
assignments with project life cycle.
 Common approach for large projects; used predominantly at
NASA Centers responsible for development projects.
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Interview with Dr. John Mather
on Management of the COBE Mission
NASA ASK Magazine, 2007
John Mather
Nobel Prize Winner, Physics, 2006
COBE Project Scientist
COHEN: What kinds of problems—other than
engineering realities—did you face?
MATHER: Some were organizational. We had
something called “matrix management,” which we
love and hate. The good thing about it is there’s a
huge pool of talent you can draw on. The bad thing
is those people are not yours. When you want their
time, they may be busy doing something that
someone else said was important. We had a cartoon
that showed two boats with lots of oarsmen. Matrix
management is people paddling in every direction
and no manager at the end of the boat. The other
one is project management the way project
managers like to do it: they know who’s in the boat;
there’s a guy at the end beating a drum; everybody
is paddling in the same direction. Our problem
wasn’t about scientists versus engineers. It was
engineers, managers, and everybody fighting over a
scarce resource.
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One way to look at it…
From an Interview with NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin on
“The True Challenge of Project Management”


See http://pmperspectives.gsfc.nasa.gov/2007/2006/truechallenge.htm
Based on Mike Griffin’s remarks at the 2006 PM Challenge (March 21, 2006).
Dr. Griffin continued that “systems engineering and project
management are opposite sides of the same coin. To talk
about one without the other is flawed.
The losses of Challenger and Columbia, the Hubble Space
Telescope’s flawed optics, Mars Observer, Mars Climatology
Observer ‘99, Mars Polar Lander, Genesis - all of these
programs’ issues were due to failures in project management
and systems engineering. They all must be looked at as learning
experiences, to learn as much from them as possible so we can
repeat as few of them as possible.”
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Module Summary: Management
 A Project Manager’s roles and responsibilities are different from those
of the Project Systems Engineer. The manager is continuously
balancing the three project variables of cost, schedule and technical
content.
 The Project Plan documents the project baseline for implementation. It
includes the work breakdown structure, the associated activities, the
resources required to accomplish the work, and the planned schedule
for completing the work.
 The Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP) is the project’s
guiding technical document. All subordinate technical documents, like a
requirements document or test plan, must follow the guidelines of the
project SEMP.
 Companies and government agencies usually use two different
approaches to managing their workforce. In-line management means
the responsible workforce directly reports to the project manager.
Matrix management means the majority of the workforce is assigned
temporarily to a project for a fixed period of time for a specified task.
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Backup Slides
for Management Module
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SEMP Contents Outline (1/4)
Title Page
•
•
Systems Engineering Management Plan
System Name or Identifier
Table of Contents
Scope
•
•
•
•
Purpose of the System
Summary and Purpose of SEMP
Relation to other plans and schedules such as the Integrated Master Plan
(IMP), Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), and Earned Value Management
System (EVMS)
The following statement: “This SEMP is the plan for the complete,
integrated technical effort. Nothing herein shall relieve the Contractor of
meeting the requirements of the Contract.”
Applicable Documents
•
•
•
Government Documents to include contractual requirements documents or
specifications
Non-government Documents to include any applicable from independent
standards organizations
Corporate Documents
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SEMP Contents Outline (2/4)
Systems Engineering Process and Responsibilities for its Implementation
 Description of the Contractor’s systems engineering process activities to be
accomplished during the contract to include the iterative nature of the process
application in the form of narratives, supplemented as appropriate by
graphical presentations, detailing the contractor’s processes and procedures
for completing the systems engineering effort
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Requirements Analysis
Functional Analysis and Allocation
Synthesis
Systems Analysis and Control to include Control and Manage to include trade
studies, cost-effectiveness analyses
Risk Management
Configuration Management
Interface Management
Data Management
Technical Performance Measurements (TPMs) – initial list, criteria for changing the
list, update schedule, responsibility for monitoring, and relationship to risk
management
Technical Reviews and Audits
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SEMP Contents Outline (3/4)
 Description of products and results
•
•
Decision Database – describe development, implementation, life-cycle
accessibility, and life-cycle maintenance including how traceability of the
information will be accomplished
Specifications (or equivalent) and configuration baselines – describe
development, measures of completeness, verifiability, traceability, and how
and when controlled
 Verification Planning – planning for verifying all requirements to include
identification, configuration control, and maintenance of
accuracy/precision of all verification tools
 Organizational responsibilities, authority, and means of accountability
for implementing the process under the Contract
 Work authorization – methods for opening work packages under the
EVMS, closure, and authorization of changes
 Subcontractor technical effort – description of the level of subcontractor
participation in the technical effort as well as the role of systems
engineering in subcontractor and vendor selection and management
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SEMP Contents Outline (4/4)
Transitioning Critical Technologies
• Criteria for assessing and transitioning technologies
• Evolutionary/spiral acquisition strategies
Integration of the Systems Engineering Activities
• How management plans and schedules (such as the IMP and IMS)
and the EVMS will be used to plan, organize, direct, monitor and
control the systems engineering activities
• Systems Engineering Tools
• Approach and process for system integration and test
Additional Systems Engineering Activities
Notes
• Glossary of terms used in the SEMP
Appendices – each appendix shall be referenced in the main body
of the SEMP where the data would otherwise have been
provided.
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Interview with Dr. John Mather
on Management of the COBE Mission
NASA ASK Magazine
Additional excerpt from John Mather’s interview:
 Tony Fragomeni, the observatory manager, used to sit at the
end of the table with a plastic baseball bat and make sure he
heard from the right people. Running meetings well is a
tremendously important skill: how to hear from all the people so
that you don’t miss good ideas; how to send people away
knowing something’s going to happen. You have to say, “I
understand that this is the decision.” Absolute clarity is required.
If you dither around and put off the decision for another week,
you’d better have a plan for what you’re going to do instead.
Drawing decisions out of discussions and actions out of ideas is
the secret for getting anything done.
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Interview with Dr. John Mather
on Management of the COBE Mission
NASA ASK Magazine
Additional excerpt from John Mather’s interview:
 The challenge for management, though, is deciding whether
they can afford to put a person on a project full time. The project
manager says, “I need to know who’s on my project all the time.
If someone completes a particular job, I’ve got something else
for him to do.” The matrix manager says, “If that person’s job is
done, I want him to work on another project.” It’s hard to cope
with matrix management flexibility if you’re a project manager.
The lesson learned on matrix management is it’s OK, but assign
people full time and make sure they know whom they’re working
for during big blocks of time. In the earliest days of COBE, we
had people charging a tenth of their time. They were able to go
to a meeting, but they didn’t have time to produce anything
useful. A tenth really equals zero. It drove us crazy, and I don’t
think it made those people happy.
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Keys to Success
Advise to University Nanosatellite Program
according to Air Force Research Lab
Administrative and student leadership
• Roles and communication
Organized mission and requirements approach
• Thought processes, logical planning, and team buy-in
Good systems engineering practices
• Set up a good foundation early
Personnel management
• Know your strengths and weaknesses
Technical challenges can be time-consuming – but poor project
management can absolutely devastate your schedule!
It is far more likely that your program will fail due to management
problems than due to technical/engineering roadblocks!
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System, Systems Engineering, and Project Management
DEFINITIONS:
• System – The combination of elements that function together to
produce the capability required to meet a need. The elements
include all hardware, software, equipment, facilities, personnel,
processes, and procedures needed for this purpose.*
• Systems Engineering – A disciplined approach for the definition,
implementation, integration and operation of a system (product
or service). The emphasis is on achieving stakeholder functional,
physical and operational performance requirements in the
intended use environments over its planned life within cost and
schedule constraints. Systems engineering includes the
engineering processes and technical management processes that
consider the interface relationships across all elements of the
system, other systems or as a part of a larger system.*
• The discipline of systems engineering uses techniques and tools
appropriate for use by any engineer with responsibility for
designing a system as defined above. That includes subsystems.
• Project Management – The process of planning, applying, and
controlling the use of funds, personnel, and physical resources
to achieve a specific result.
*NASA NPG 7120.5D
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