Joe, an engineer at NASA, is assigned to lead a new mission to Mars. He wants to re-use a design from a previous Mars mission he worked on 6 years ago. However, when Joe tries searching legacy systems to find information from the past mission, he faces barriers like expired permissions and unavailable archives. Joe is only able to find partial information that does not provide the full context he needs. As a result, Joe's team wastes time and money pursuing a flawed design approach. In an alternate scenario where NASA has a robust knowledge management system, Joe is able to easily find and share all relevant information from the past mission, including reviews that identified issues. This helps Joe and his team learn from past experiences and avoid

1. A KM Story:
Robust Information Re-Use
Launches Mission Success
Jayne Dutra
jayne.dutra@verizon.net
KM World 2009
San Jose, CA
November 18, 2009

2. 2
• Joe has been an engineer
at NASA for 20 years
• His last two missions were
for Earth-orbiting satellites
• He has just been assigned
a mission to Mars
• He worked on a Mars
mission 6 years ago and
wants to re-use a design
from this past job
Meet Joe, the Cognizant Engineer
Goal: Lead a flight project team that will
design a robust propulsion system for the
Mars Return Mission.
Task: To work with his team to design a
propulsion system that will successfully fly
a mission to Mars.
Background: Joe was mainly schooled
the old fashioned way, doing drawings with
paper and pencil, but has been using
electronic CAD programs and engineering
systems software for the last 9 years.

3. 3
Joe Begins Work
I can’t wait to start on a planetary
mission, and Mars too, my old friend! I
wonder if I can find any materials from
the Mars Teleorbiter mission I worked
on six years ago.
While my team begins their design
studies, I’ll do some research. No use
repeating designs that didn’t work the
first time!
Joe needs to look up
materials from work
he has done in the past
in order to jump start
his team’s design studies.

4. 4
Looking for Information from Past Missions
I remember having some issues on the
last propulsion system we designed,
but I can’t quite recall the details.
I think we were still using the old
Failure Reporting system back then.
I’ll check there first.
Joe decides to check the
Problem Failure Reporting
application, a legacy system.
Problem Reporting System

5. 5
Unreliable Search Terms
Problem Reporting System
Mmm.... what did we call that last
mission? It had several acronyms, MTO,
MO, but maybe there others ....
Gee, only 5 failure reports turned up
from my search. I know there were more
than that. Where else could they be?
Joe tries to remember the acronyms that
were used on the past mission for his search.
He has no way of knowing if he tested them
all. He is disappointed with the results.
He decides to try the electronic library
system.

6. 6
Searching for Archived Materials
Oh no! The library I need has disappeared! I
guess all that material is gone. I know I did
a Worst Case Radiation Analysis that would
be really helpful for the team.
I bet they printed it out and stored it in a
warehouse somewhere. I wonder who I
would contact to find that stuff ??
Joe’s project library has been
archived and was stored
somewhere physically off lab.
He cannot access it electronically.
He goes to the
Engineering Data system next.

7. 7
Permission Barriers to Information Retrieval
Rats! My access permissions for that
mission have expired so I can’t look at the
Engineering Change Requests even though
I wrote them!
I also wanted to look at some of the CAD
drawings and schematics.
Mmm... who was the CM on that
project? Maybe he still has permissions...
Joe cannot access relevant content
because his access permissions
have expired. He decides to try
calling some colleagues.

8. 8
Accessing the Social Network
Hi Bill, do you remember the
Mars Teleorbiter mission we
worked on together 6 years ago?
Any idea where the Test Failure
Reports might be?
Joes speaks to his friend, Bill, who was
the configuration management engineer
on the previous Mars mission, but he is
too busy to be of much help.
.
Gosh, Joe, I’m really not sure.
Maybe when I get a break, I’ll
try to figure it out.

9. 9
Exploring the Paper Trail
Maybe I have something in my old
Mars Teleorbiter mission binder
that describes the problems we had
last time and how we solved them.
Oh darn, I remember now that our
Safety Inspector made me ship all
that material to the warehouse since
it was considered a fire hazard.

10. 10
Media Issues Impact Retrieval
Joes calls the Electronic
Document Information
Management System to see if
they have anything relating to
the Mars mission.
Hello, Vellum Files? I am looking
for the Final Build Data Package for
the 2002 Mars Teleorbiter mission.
Do you have it in your archives? Oh,
it’s on microfiche? Could you scan
the documents and send them to me
in hard copy?
Electronic Document Information
Management System

11. 11
Partial Information is Misleading
Joes receives scanned copies of the materials
from the Electronic Document Information
Management System, but they are difficult to read.
He decides to include the original design as an
option in his trade studies since he cannot find
any reason not to re-use it.
Mmmm..... I finally got the scanned
documents, but I’ve lost two weeks
and these reports are really hard to
read since the scanning process
didn’t work very well.
I guess the first design was okay or
I would find some reference to it.

12. 12
The Outcome
Joe decides to pursue his original design from the first
Mars mission as one of the options to be developed by
his team for the trade study period early in the mission’s
life cycle, even though he cannot locate information
objects from reviews or see all of the engineering quality
control documents.
As a result, Joe’s team spends a considerable amount of
time and money before they realize that this approach is
a blind alley with serious flaws.

13. 13
A Different Scenario
Let’s see what happens
to Joe if he had had a
robust, consistent KM
information framework
in place.
Will there be a different outcome?

14. 14
Joe Begins Work
I can’t wait to start on a planetary
mission, and Mars too, my old friend! I
wonder if I can find any materials from
the Mars Teleorbiter mission I worked
on six years ago.
While my team begins their design
studies, I’ll do some research. No use
repeating designs that didn’t work the
first time!
Joe needs to look up
materials from work
he has done in the past
in order to jump start
his team’s design studies.

15. Project Lift Off
15
Researching Past Missions
I remember having some issues on
the last design we did for Mars, but I
can’t quite recall the details.
I’ll go to the project knowledge base
to look for information about the
first mission. I’ll look under
Missions first.
Joe goes to the
Project Knowledge
Base.

16. Project Lift Off
16
Looking for Archived Information
Mmm... what did we actually call
that mission? Oh, here it is: Mars
Teleorbiter.
I want to look at the Quality Control
Records to see if there is anything I
should know before I start the trade
studies.
Joe finds his mission
and looks for quality
control records.

17. Project Lift Off
17
Tracking Terms and Systems
Wow! I see results from the Failure Reporting
System, the old PDM System and the
Electronic Library. I didn’t realize the docs
were scattered all over.
But I sure am glad that someone archived the
info and saved it. I also see returns tagged with
MT and MTO. But the search found them all
anyway. Lucky for me!
Mission acronyms and variant terms
are stored in the taxonomy that
underlies the search. The search
catalog includes items from all
project systems and archives.

18. 18
Tracking Terms and Systems
Oh, thank goodness, if I check under
Content Type, I see the analyses we
wrote last time. . .
I can even cross reference the analyses
by Subsystem and Project.
They turned right up! I can’t believe
how easily I found all this historical
material.
Knowledge categories can be used
together to narrow a search quickly
depending on what details the user
may have.
Project Liftoff

19. Project Liftoff
19
Using Context to Create Associations
Wow, the objects are tagged by Mission
Phase. I took a real beating at the Phase C
review. I’ll bet there are Action Items in
the Phase C Review Package.
Wow, this is the presentation I gave 6 years
ago. Look at all those RFA’s! That sponsor
really zero’ed in on what was wrong with
our design!
Joe’s memory is triggered by the search
results. He knows that if he can find the
RFA’s from the CDR, he can see why the
review board was so critical of the
design that was submitted and how his
team fixed the problems.

20. 20
Breadcrumb Trail to Knowledge Discovery
Okay, here it is! I finally found what I need.
These ECR closures describe exactly what
we did to change the system. Turns out the
sponsor was right. I was upset at the time,
but it sure made sense to rethink the design.
I wonder if anyone else tried this? Maybe
they made modifications that would enhance
the system even more.
The system finds information that
helps Joe identify solutions.
Now, he’s wondering if any other Cog
E tried their ideas about propulsion.
Project Liftoff

21. 21
Social Networking – SME Discovery
I think I’ll look under Subject and see
what documents are in the system. Now
let’s add on the Organization filter so I
can look by section. Hey, here are 7
documents written by Steve down the hall.
Think I’ll visit Steve and see how his team
did with this approach. Maybe they thought
of something we missed.
The system helps Joe find peers who
have done similar work. Now he can
speak to them in real time and get
the benefit of their experience.
Project Liftoff

22. 22
Collaborating With the Team
I’ll also post these documents to my
team’s portal so we can all share the
content.
I wonder if any of the flight spare
parts are around for re-use...
Is the Flight Hardware Store in this
system?
Joe’s team will benefit from seeing the
review and analysis from the
first mission’s CDR.
The system provides an RSS feed to
automatically post the documents.

23. 23
Meanwhile....
Meet Sophie
• Sophie is a younger member of
Joe’s team.
• This is her first big chance to be
on a flight project team.
I’m am so excited about this project!
I know Joe said that he would do some
research, but while I’m waiting, why
don’t I see what I can find out on
my own?
Sophie goes to the
Knowledge Base
System.

24. 24
Providing Intuitive Navigation for Different POVs
The taxonomy provides terms to assist
Sophie in finding her way to the same
information Joe found, but through a
different route. Since she does not have
the personal knowledge Joe does, this is a
valuable aspect of the system.
I’ll look under Competency first.
Great! I see results under the terms
Power Systems, Propulsion and
Mechanical Systems. I can also
cross reference System/Subsystem.
Wow, here are review packages for all
the Mars missions, and here’s Joe’s last
Critical Design review.
Project Liftoff

25. 25
Knowledge Discovery is Powerful!
Uh oh, I see by the review materials that
Joe’s design for the previous mission was
a bust.
But wait a minute, here are the testing
results from the QA phase of the mission.
With a few changes, Joe’s team was able
to make the first design work out.
Wait til Joe sees this!
Sophie finds information that helps
the current team make design
decisions to enable a more robust
propulsion system.
Project Liftoff

26. 26
Hey, Joe, look at these documents
and test results from your other
Mars mission. We can use these to
springboard our trade studies.
Not only that, Sophie, but I also found out
that Steve used a similar power system on
the Mars Planet Orbiter mission, and his
team modified our design to make it even
more efficient!
With this new information, we’ll have
some good alternatives to show at the
Preliminary Design Review. We better get
busy!
Retrieving Information for Effective Re-use

27. 27
What Was Different?
KM Infrastructure components:
– An archive for documents and information objects
– A common corporate vocabulary (taxonomy) and metadata
schema
– A search tool that actively uses the taxonomy
– Indexed content
– A collaborative team environment that can handle agents and
syndication
– Knowledge navigation that encompassed the whole domain
space
– The ability for the user to browse for information without
knowing an exact keyword

28. 28
What Else Was Different?
KM leveraged:
• A knowledge vocabulary that drew heavily on the
users’ processes and experience
• Items from multiple repositories unified by language
that the engineers found intuitive with variant terms
mapped
• A knowledge vocabulary that embedded the corporate
memory over time in IT tools
A Consistent KM Information Architecture
gets the job done!

29. Thanks For Your Time!
29
Jayne Dutra
jayne.dutra@verizon.net