When NASA sent the first humans to the moon 50 years ago this year, the development of computers was in a nascent stage. The Apollo 11 spacecraft touted one of its own on board: just over 70 pounds and 24 by 12.5 by 6 inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifty years later, NASA is planning again to launch people to the moon, targeting a 2024 moon landing and later looking toward Mars through its Artemis program. Technology has advanced greatly in the last 50 years, which also transforms the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the moon mission, astronauts will travel in the Orion space vehicle, being built by Lockheed Martin. Like many government platforms today, the functions of the vehicle rely on software \u2014 and any bugs in the code could potentially catastrophic effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ensuring the integrity of code falls in part on Justin Smith, the project manager for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle team at NASA\u2019s Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program. His team is checking that critical functions of the spacecraft work correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDoes the software help the parachutes deploy on the line the right way right before it crashes into the water? Or do the jets fire at the right time or in the correct position?\u201d Those are just a couple of the considerations that Smith noted Oct. 21 at the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council Imagine Nation conference in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To do the job effectively, Smith\u2019s team adopted an \u201cagile\u201d software assurance process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving beyond \u2018paralysis by analysis\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAgile is all about small, manageable pieces of work,\u201d Smith said. Agile development \u2014 an alternative to a more traditional, linear waterfall approach, where each phase depends on results from the phase previous \u2014 can apply to software assurance, software development, workforce policies and the government\u2019s ability to adopt to new technologies quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the 21st century, agility powered by IT, powered by data and powered by people is how leading players execute,\u201d Margaret Weichert, the Office of Management and Budget deputy director of management, said at the same conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people piece was a critical part for Smith\u2019s agile assurance of the Orion software, dividing into what he called \u201csmall self- organizing teams.\u201d He started with two teams: one focusing on command and data handling, communications and tracking, and electrical power; and the other focused on entry, descent and landing of the spacecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, whenever they would run into a problem or a different way to look at the software, they would help each other in the scrum meetings,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scrum, of course, is the framework for agile, named after the rugby formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They later decided to take a different approach, moving away from grouping by technical background, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve moved away from \u2018this person has this specific knowledge of the vehicle, this person is really good at doing this kind of analysis and they work well with this person,\u2019\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of personality assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smith said that he wanted to avoid \u201cparalysis by analysis\u201d to speed up his team\u2019s decision-making. Smith\u2019s team established retrospectives, which are opportunities for team members to openly talk about what worked and what didn\u2019t work during the previous period \u2014 or \u201csprint,\u201d though his team later stopped using sprints but continued retrospectives. Having these conversations, he said, were critical to getting members comfortable with faster decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always opportunities through our retrospectives to course correct,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But \u201cthat was very hard at the beginning. A lot of them were really scared to take chances because they felt they were just going to get hit over the head or lose their job if something went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A model for the feds <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her speech in Philadelphia in late October, Weichert said that she wanted to knock down the \u201cstructural impediments\u201d in government that are preventing the government from being agile. Across the civilian agencies, federal chief information officers are recognizing the impact that an agile approach can have on projects \u2014 and gradually attempting the transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the agile development lifecycle from the developers that IV&V worked with created challenges: they couldn\u2019t keep up with the process. The agile approach was releasing new code for the flight software every three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process was \u201clike nothing IV&V had seen before,\u201d team members wrote in a white paper on the program. The document said team members became very frustrated trying to analyze the code because they couldn\u2019t keep up. Ultimately, the inability to keep up introduced risks of \u201cincreasing cost to an already resource constrained program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe developer was doing what they needed to do to build the flight software, and it was evident that these challenges would require IV&V to adapt much more than usual to perform effective analysis,\u201d the team wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, to keep up with the rapid development of Orion\u2019s code, which totals 800,000 lines, IV&V had to change its approach to one that would allow it to quickly shift between areas of highest risk and provide assurance for those areas, and then rapidly shift focus again if priorities changed. NASA brought in an outside consultant from Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Software Engineering Institute and then eventually set up an agile assurance framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the proper approach in place, cost savings are a critical benefit of agile development for the taxpayer, said Department of Education CIO Jason Gray. He added that the flexibility also makes projects more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt allows us to respond to the constantly changing environment in a much faster and more efficient way,\u201d rather than feeling compelled to continue down a path to failure, Gray said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, the approach allows for a better product \u2014 and also allows the customer to have more input during the process. The result is ideally a \u201cmore user-centered design\u201d that can help define requirements and ensure the team is \u201cgetting it right as we go,\u201d said Small Business Administration CIO Maria Roat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Orion IV&V team\u2019s agile approach changed how it releases its results, the team wrote. Instead of only reporting out what the software is doing that it shouldn\u2019t, it also reports confirmation that the software is working the way it should. This approach provides a more \u201cbalanced assessment of the condition of the software.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, the approach provides insight that allows the decision-makers to \u201cunderstand the level of risk perceived\u201d by IV&V, they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therein lies another benefit of agile: providing stakeholders with more transparency throughout the process. Agile development can often appease program area owners who have complained \u201cfor years\u201d that they weren\u2019t involved in the project processes, said Gary Washington, the Department of Agriculture CIO, adding that through agile development \u201cwe\u2019re showing them where they fit in in a process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important because \u201cthey actually see tangible progress in terms of development of systems and they are part of that whole activity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lessons learned from the moon mission<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agile framework increased the frequency of Smith\u2019s team reports to Lockheed Martin from months to weeks. Some weeks, they can deliver several products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The retrospective meetings that Smith\u2019s team held were what he described as the most important piece of their successful adoption of agility. All the \u201cgreat innovations\u201d that came from his team, he said, started in those meetings that at the core reflect on successes and failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey started with an idea \u2014 something that we weren\u2019t doing well, and they were brave enough to talk about\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey felt safe. And from there we talked as a group, we brainstormed ideas, and then, ultimately, we created a safe environment for that idea to go off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retrospective meetings don\u2019t have to take much time; as little as 10-15 minutes can make a difference, Smith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meetings also serve as the project management component of the effort \u2014 identifying pockets of opportunity to drive efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recognizing what Smith and his team are working toward, 50 years after their predecessors relied on clunky computers, is both surreal and inspiring. And, Smith adds, it is the best recruitment tool imaginable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely cool,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAs somebody who gets to follow the program, to watch what they\u2019re doing and understand the mission \u2014 it\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The agency is using agile software development to help keep astronauts safe on the next moon mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":60926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,106,31,110,14,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3242],"class_list":["post-20224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-it-cloud-report","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QXGIBBSYLRAOBGPES2EZFXNHOY","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2019\/11\/26\/how-nasa-upended-internal-processes-to-prepare-for-its-next-lunar-mission\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n