Why does JPL need a knowledge management program?

In March 2013, the NASA workforce approaching retirement—those 50 years of age or older— outnumbered NASA employees under age 35 by more than three to one (50% vs. 14%) in the Science & Engineering labor category. Twenty years ago, the over-50 and under-35 numbers were roughly equal (36% over 50 vs. 33% under 35).¹ This attrition of the most experienced personnel presents a serious knowledge retention challenge for NASA. For JPL, replacing this intellectual capital is particularly difficult because nowhere outside JPL does there exist an equivalent hub of expertise in deep space system development and operation from which to draw experienced staff. Other JPL knowledge may be lost, not due to personnel turnover, but due to project turnover when no concerted effort is make to retain and share knowledge critical to the success of future projects. Knowledge is often treated as if it was acquired at no cost, and as if corporate survival does not depend on it.

The NASA Office of the Chief Engineer has announced a knowledge management (KM) initiative in which the NASA Centers are required to plan and implement KM programs. Knowledge management is an established discipline, featuring both practitioners and academics, that focuses on knowledge as a strategic asset that must be managed to ensure that it is retained and shared within the organization. Knowledge transfer is a commonplace practice that is only one element of KM: the KM discipline provides a disciplined approach to consciously evaluating and managing the process of organizational learning. NASA has directed each NASA Center to appoint a KM point-of-contact with the HQ program. NASA is presently drafting an Agency-wide KM policy, and KM program requirements will follow. Hence, JPL needs to plan to conform with the NASA initiative, and perhaps to excel in a manner that preserves and leverages JPL intellectual capital.

This plan proposes a strategy to manage and maximize JPL’s intangible assets for the benefit of the Lab, its flight projects, and our NASA stakeholder. The JPL KM plan is aligned with JPL’s and NASA’s overall strategy and objectives. Specific JPL knowledge retention/sharing problems that this plan addresses includes:

• Attrition of key personnel, and of their knowledge.
• Poor accessibility to critical knowledge, including technical data acquired by projects.
• Repetition of technical errors (i.e., lessons that JPL failed to learn).
• Inability to repeat successes (e.g., design of the MSL throttled engine required making inquiries to Viking project staff who had long since retired).
• Ineffective training and retraining.
• Project and institutional work that must be repeated because no one was held responsible for preserving the results.

These problems are not intractable, but rather are attributable to an inadequate priority placed on the management of intangible assets within the JPL culture. An example of a practice where personal knowledge is shared quite effectively is the publication of technical papers; enterprise-wide knowledge over decades is captured and easily accessed by JPL in its Problem Reporting System. Because JPL’s primary business is engineering design and development, management of knowledge within engineering and related fields (e.g., procurement, project costing) should be given precedence.

“At NASA, a relatively small number of people devote their time explicitly to knowledge work—in APPEL, for instance, through knowledge programs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard, and in recent Exploration Systems Mission Directorate efforts to link knowledge sharing to risk management. As in many organizations, though, there is more knowledge work to be done than there are people to do it, and the Agency may need to do more to preserve and share its project knowledge." ²

NASA's and JPL's earlier attempts at managing knowledge have been local in response to specific technical and organizational needs. In recent years, though, NASA's stakeholders have identified opportunities for greater coordination and collaboration across the agency. The CKO role is to facilitate and champion KM that supports the effective execution of NASA missions.

Will measurable benefits accrue from KM?

KM will save money. The JPL KM program will seek opportunities for JPL to to reuse costly knowledge that is not presently captured for reuse. Knowledge that can be shown to be of high value to future projects and at risk for loss will be targeted for capture and sharing.

¹ COGNOS WICN tool, Workforce Strategy Division, NASA Office of Human Capital Management, http://wicn.nssc.nasa.gov/wicn_cubes.html.

² Laurence Prusak and Don Cohen, "NASA and the Future of Knowledge," ASK Magazine, Vol. 32, Fall 2008, p. 47.