Program Management Practices: Comparison Between DoD and NASA

Abstract

The Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010 emphasized the necessity of partnerships between federal agencies to achieve common goals. In order to successfully execute cross-agency programs and projects, it is important to understand processes and policies across organizational boundaries. Knowing where guidance overlaps, converges, and diverges can help better inform program and project managers. This project compares and contrasts program and project management practices of two government agencies: the Department of Defense (DOD) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). DOD’s big-A and little-a acquisitions are compared with relevant NASA Policy Directives and NASA Procedural Requirements in order to identify similarities and differences. These similarities and differences are then assessed against the twelve program management principles identified in the Project Management Body of Knowledge to finally inform a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. The comparison shows more similarities than differences. Similarities resulted in common strengths to both DOD and NASA, for instance a culture of innovation and focus on tailoring. Differences informed possible best practices, such as DOD’s multiple acquisition pathways for time-phased and product-based programs and NASA’s structured tailoring approach.