Engineering topics
Taylor, Randall
Publications and source records attributed to Taylor, Randall.
Reducing NPR 7120.5D to Practice: Transitioning from Design Reviews to the SIR Hardware Review
The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission was the first Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) project initiated under NASA's revised rules for space flight project management, NPR 7120.5D, "NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements." NASA selected GRAIL through a competitive Announcement of Opportunity process and funded its Phase B Preliminary Design effort. The team's first major milestone was a JPL institutional milestone, the Project Mission System Review (PMSR), which proved an excellent tune-up for the end-of-Phase-B NASA life-cycle review, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Building on JPL experience on the Prometheus and Juno projects, the team successfully organized for and conducted these reviews on an aggressive schedule. For the Project Critical Design Review (CDR), lessons learned from the PDR and updated Standing Review Board (SRB) practices from the Agency were factored into the review preparation effort. Additionally, the review was held at the Principal Investigator's institution, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, rather than at the project management center (JPL), which necessitated additional cross-country coordination steps. The PMSR, PDR, and CDR were design reviews and largely paper-oriented. For the System Integration Review (SIR), the project needed to transition to a hardware review and deal with paper in a very different manner. While many of the practices employed for the design reviews were modified and retained (e.g., review preparation team, gate products management, pre-reviews, SRB coordination), the review agenda, presentation style, and slide templates were significantly changed. A key success factor concerned the handling of project open paper, which was succinctly and effectively communicated to the SRB in presentations.This paper provides a brief overview of the GRAIL mission and its project management challenges, provides a detailed description of project SIR preparation and execution activities, including positive and negative lessons learned and identifies recommendations for future NASA (and non- NASA) project teams.
Rededucing NPR 7120.5D to Practice: Transitioning from Design Reviews to the SIR Hardware Review
This paper provides a brief overview of the GRAIL mission and its project management challenges, provides a detailed description of project SIR preparation and execution activities, including positive and negative lessons learned and identifies recommendations for future NASA (and non-NASA) project teams.
Reengineering the Acquisition/Procurement Process: A Methodology for Requirements Collection
This paper captures the systematic approach taken by JPL's Acquisition Reengineering Project team, the methodology used, challenges faced, and lessons learned. It provides pragmatic "how-to" techniques and tools for collecting requirements and for identifying areas of improvement in an acquisition/procurement process or other core process of interest.
Transitioning From Design Reviews to the SIR Hardware Review
No abstract available
Prometheus Project final report
This Final Report serves as an executive summary of the Prometheus Project's activities and deliverables from November 2002 through September 2005. It focuses on the challenges from a technical and management perspective, what was different and innovative about this project, and identifies the major options, decisions, and accomplishments of the Project team as a whole. However, the details of the activities performed by DOE NR and its contractors will be documented separately in accordance with closeout requirements of the DOE NR and consistent with agreements between NASA and NR.