NASA Strategic Project Leadership in an Era of Better, Faster, Cheaper: Striving for Systems Innovation

Space science projects in NASA are typically characterized by advanced technology, new types of missions, complex integration of hardware and software systems, and inflexible time frames that are often dictated by ¿launch windows.¿ To analyze these types of projects, this investigation used the framework of Strategic Project Leadership (SPL) correlated with systems development projects through case study research. Four NASA projects were investigated that were managed during an era within NASA of Better, Faster, Cheaper (BFC). Two of them were successes (Mars Pathfinder and Lunar Prospector), and two failures (CONTOUR and Mars Climate Orbiter). The objectives of this study were to (1) develop a better conceptual understanding of strategic system innovation through the study of BFC projects, (2) understand how SPL can describe BFC projects, and (3) provide feedback, recommendations, and lessons learned to NASA and the aerospace industry on potential success criteria for BFC projects.

Currently a professor with the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology; his research interests include the advancement of systems theory in the pursuit of a biology of systems and system and enterprise maturity assessment. Learn more at http://www.boardmansauser.com or http://www.SystemReadinessLevel.com