1. ‘Serving Two Masters’
Lessons Learned from Managing Agency IT
Projects
Myron Bradshaw, Project Manager
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

2. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will
hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other.”
It‟s a common perception that you cannot meet
the needs of both the Agency and Your
Center concurrently.
But can you?

3. Project: NASA Consolidated Active Directory (NCAD)
• Goal: Consolidate individual Active Directory forests at each NASA
Center into a single forest
• Scope: 18 NASA Centers/Facilities nationwide
• Users: approximately 70,000
• Workstations: approximately 80,000
• Project Lifetime: 4 years (through design, build-out, migrations)
• Migration Timeline: 24 months

4. Alignment
with Flight
Projects Federal
Science Requirement
Requirement s (OMB)
s
Organizational Increase Efficiency
Boundaries Centralized
Authentication and
Center Needs
Management
Agency Needs
Project Manager

5. Agency Initiatives
• Usually developed to meet external requirements
(such as Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12
and other Federal OMB mandates)
Federal
(OMB, FIPS)
Agency (Projects,
Initiatives)
Centers (Implementation)

6. Agency Initiatives
• Centers/Facilities find implementation problematic
– Express difficulty in meeting customer
requirements in new environment
– Technical Support personnel are already
oversubscribed
– No financial assistance provided to support
increased workload (unfunded mandates)

7. Center Requirements
• Driven by organizational needs and
responsiveness to customers
– Value added/rationale behind Agency
initiatives are not readily apparent
– Benefits of implementation are often
relative, depending on organization‟s
viewpoint
• Emphasis on rapid adaptation and flexibility

8. The Personal Touch
• One-on-one conversations were held with
representatives of Organizations/Directorates
– People are generally reluctant to criticize
openly
– Easier to articulate the root of the problem
– Candid conversations : “What can be done
to meet your needs?”

9. Open Communication
• Bring all involved parties to the table
– Ensure all voices are heard
– Increases „buy-in‟
• Project Managers cannot always articulate for
organizations with enough passion or detail
• Emphasize a „common ground‟ solution
• Project Manager acts as a mediator
• Goal is to establish a framework for a
successful implementation

10. „Active‟ Problem Solving
• Issues don‟t completely disappear after
agreement is reached
– Theoretical is often far different from actual
• New issues are likely to arise during
implementation (the unknown unknowns)
– All organization implementations are
different
• Both sides must master the art of
compromise
• Frequent tag-ups keep the lines of
communication open

11. Everyone Wins
• The best situation is one where everyone
ends up feeling like they should have gotten
the other side to concede more
• Both agree that the ultimate solution is „good
enough‟ to adequately meet all requirements
• Perfection will remain elusive

12. Summary
• Meeting both Agency and Center needs is
indeed possible
• Emphasize „The Three C‟s‟
– be Candid
– Compromise
– Communicate

13. Questions?