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Looking back over the past century, when did we begin to worry so much about risk that we have stopped living on the edge of possibilities and strayed back to the safety of the ensured? Just think in the past one hundred or so years we have seen the invention of the modern automobile allowing humans to travel faster than ever before and allowing easier travel over great distances. Let us not forget about the Wright Brothers who with their invention of the airplane allowed humans to take flight. Moreover, if we are talking about airplane it must be mentioned the invention of the rocket allowing humans to take that giant leap, a huge risk, and leave our planet Earth for the first time ever! Something that most thought to be impossible not that many years prior.

These are great achievements just in a short period but if we look even further back we see even greater risks that humanity has achieved. One that quickly pops to mind is the journey of Christopher Columbus to sail west across the vastness across the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to find the East Indies. What a risk not only Christopher Columbus took along with his sailors but also King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who financed the trip! One wonders though how many risk mitigation strategies they had in place or what type of risk identification they took before authorizing the trip.

Obviously, in each of these cases throughout history risk management has played a part to one extent or another. When NASA sent Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the Moon, the risks were determined and mitigated for the issues that might arise on their journey. However, would that be even possible today? With risk management one of the top buzzwords across corporate America today, can we even begin to envision the next hundred years achieving as much as we have in the past? As a project manager, I have seen countless cases of project failures and one area that is constantly focused on as a cause of the failure is risk management. We seem to think that we can prepare for every eventually and then create a plan to mitigate or defuse those risks. But at times, all we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Using the example of Apollo 11 again, we see that President Nixon had two speeches prepared, one for the success of the mission, and one if we never were to see those astronauts again.

Sometimes we need to realize we are not perfect and no matter how much risk management you put into a project there is no way you will be able to fully understand all of the risks that may arise. This is especially true for our ventures on the edge of possibilities. If we do not ignore the risk of taking a step over that edge, we will no longer be able to push the road of possibilities even further into the realm of the impossible. Risk management is a benefit to helping control costs, reduce failure, and keeping a project on what is usually a tight schedule to begin with but too much risk management is a risk unto itself. Is too much risk management holding you back from reaching the edge of possibility?

Today on Twitter, Jon Verville (@jonverve) posed what seemed to be a simple question, “What fundamentally does NASA do? What should NASA do in the future?” As I sat there and thought about these two questions, I began to realize that my response surely would not fit into 140 characters. I mentioned this and Tim Bailey (@tim846) suggested I write a blog and link to it instead. What a great idea! I am sure there will be some that disagree with me on my, possibly rambling, thoughts but as I have followed NASA over the years these same thoughts have come to mind and the same topic has consistently come up in conversations. Moreover, the question I hear all the time is why do we need NASA. To begin to even answer that question let me answer the first question…

What fundamentally does NASA do?

At its core, NASA takes science fiction and makes it science fact. That’s my 140 character Twitter answer! Many on this planet remember when putting anything in space, let alone a human, was crazy talk.  Now we have astronauts living aboard a research laboratory in space that is the size of a football field!   How about those of us that remember using an AAA map for the summer trip? A computer telling us directions? Crazy talk, unless we were watching The Jetsons of course. But, what if we delve deeper into the question? Then NASA does everything from weather forecasting to climate research to launching the shuttle (not for much longer unfortunately) to studying ketchup. Yes, you heard that right – studying ketchup. There is a very clear explanation for this in that NASA scientists were studying why ketchup does not pour easily out of a bottle (think Heinz 57) using the study of fluid dynamics and something called shear thinning. Moving on from ketchup, we have a NASA project that is studying how to turn human waste into electricity. Then there is the coastal mapping project for the State of Mississippi and even better, a NASA funded project to study roadway friction. At this point, I am wondering what NASA doesn’t do.

What should NASA do in the future?

Knowing that NASA is studying, and funding, projects that range from ketchup to studying human waste I begin to wonder if NASA has not lost its focus. NASA does stand for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration so as we move into the future, and into a period where American manned spaceflight is grounded, maybe NASA should focus on what its name is – Aeronautics and Aerospace. Now don’t get me wrong, those projects where NASA is studying ketchup and roadway friction are still very important but with as limited as a budget as NASA has (approximately 0.50% of the federal budget!) maybe we should let the other science agencies such as NSF, NIST, etc… tackle these questions. Instead of studying ice melt at the poles, which should still definitely be studied, lets get NASA to focus on studying biofuels for aircraft or how to create an even better space propulsion system. NASA should be working on projects that get us studying farther and farther out of low earth orbit (LEO) not projects that study the change of the landscape in metropolitan areas.

With that, as NASA reinvents itself over the next few years, let’s see if NASA can find a way to make itself interesting again starting with learning how to market itself. As someone on Twitter recently said, NASA does not tell the people story. The world knows that someone at NASA mixed up imperial and metric measurements causing a spacecraft to crash on Mars but should they not also know about the people behind its successes? Sure, you ask someone what they know about NASA and they’ll mention the Space Shuttle and maybe the International Space Station but do they know anything else NASA has done? With as little of the taxpayer’s dollars that NASA gets the American public sure does get a lot for their 50 cents, stories that should certainly be shared and told. Heck, most people don’t even realize that the last space shuttle launch ever is happening in less than two weeks. By marketing the advancements, that NASA has done in past as well as current and future projects NASA can connect the public to its missions in a way that would be a call to action. Let’s turn the famous JFK saying into “ask not what NASA has done for me but what I can do for NASA!”

P.S. I realize that much of the “pork barrel spending” in the NASA budget is not the fault of NASA alone but also the fault of the politicians in Congress who can’t keep stop providing for pet projects back home.

Over the past few years I have migrated a majority of my books to digital (e-book) format. This has left me with a large library of paper books that just sit on shelves and collect dust. Recently, anytime I have a paper book I finish reading I utilize BookCrossing.com and leave it somewhere, such as the Metro, for someone else to find and enjoy. Before I do that for all of my other paper books I figure I’ll let my friends and blog viewers get first choice. So below, you’ll see all of the books I’m looking to get to a new home. These are all free to you with only one condition, you’ll pass it on to someone else after your done with it or donate it to a library. Other than that there are no costs associated with asking for anyone of these books! I’ll even throw in USPS Media Mail shipping if it costs less than 5 bucks (although donations are welcome!). So, if you’re interested in any of these books just click the “Contact” link on the left to send me an e-mail or find me on Twitter @josephgruber and let me know which you’d like! But hurry, because any books I have left on August 30th will be released into the wild!

Non-Fiction

• Onward, Howard Schultz (ISBN: 978-1-60529-288-5)
• Why We Want You To Be Rich, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki (ISBN: 978-1-933914-02-2)
• Live From Cape Canaveral, Jay Barbree (ISBN: 978-0-06-123393-7)
• Failure Is Not An Option, Gene Kranz (ISBN: 0-425-17987-7)
• Turnaround, Mitt Romney (ISBN: 978-1-59698-514-8)
• Work In Progress, Michael D. Eisner (ISBN: 0-375-50071-5)
• I Hate People, Jonathan Littman & Marc Hershon (ISBN: 978-0-316-06882-6)
• Riding Rockets, Astronaut Mike Mullane (ISBN: 978-0-7432-7683-2)
• Roving Mars, Steve Squyres (ISBN: 1-4013-0851-1)
• Marley & Me, John Grogan (ISBN: 978-0-06-081708-4)
• The Secret Service, Philip H. Melanson, Ph.D. (ISBN: 1-56731-686-7)
• A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, Bill O’Reilly (ISBN: 978-0-7679-2882-3)
• Mark Twain, Complete and Unabridged, Mark Twain (ISBN: 978-0-7607-7501-1)
• 102 Minutes, Jim Dwyer & Kevin Flynn (ISBN: 0-8050-7682-4)
• Inside The Magic Kingdom, Tom Connellan (ISBN: 1-885167-23-7)
• First Man, James R. Hansen (ISBN: 978-0-7432-5631-5)
• Disney War, James B. Stewart (ISBN: 978-0-7432-6709-0)
• The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. & William D. Danko, Ph.D. (ISBN: 978-0-671-01520-6)

Fiction

• Extreme Measures, Vince Flynn (ISBN: 978-0-7432-7042-7)
• Act of Treason, Vince Flynn (ISBN: 978-1-4165-4226-1)
• Memorial Day, Vince Flynn (ISBN: 978-0-7434-5398-1)
• Consent To Kill, Vince Flynn (ISBN: 978-1-4165-0501-3)
• Transfer Of Power, Vince Flynn (ISBN: 978-0-671-02320-1)
• Executive Power, Vince Flynn (ISBN: 978-0-7434-5396-7)
• Medusa’s Child, John J. Nance (ISBN: 0-312-96245-2)
• Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-345-37077-5)
• The Lost World, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-679-41946-2)
• The Terminal Man, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-345-35462-1)
• Five Patients, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-345-35464-8)
• the Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-345-37848-2)
• Congo, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-345-37849-0)
• Sphere, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-345-35314-5)
• Airframe, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-679-44648-6)
• Prey, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-06-621412-2)
• Next, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 978-0-06-087298-4)
• State of Fear, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 0-06-621413-0)
• Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton (ISBN: 978-0-06-192937-3)
• And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
• Lost In The Barrens, Farley Mowat (ISBN: 0-553-26067-7)
• Nothing But The Truth, AVI (ISBN: 0-380-71907-X)

Technical

• Head First Java, Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates (ISBN: 978-0-596-00920-5)
• SAMS Teach Yourself PHP, Matt Zandstra (ISBN: 0-672-32311-7)
• SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6, Greg Perry with Sanjaya Hettihewa (ISBN: 0-672-31533-5)
• Exam Cram 2: Windows 2000 Active Directory Services Infrastructure, Peter Bruzzese, David Watts, & Will Willis (ISBN: 0-7897-2871-0)
• Exam Cram 2: Windows 2000 Network Infrastrucutre, Diana Huggins (ISBN: 0-7897-2863-X)
• Exam Cram 2: Implementing and Managing Exchange Server 2003, Will Schmied & Orin Thomas (ISBN: 0-7897-3098-7)
• Exam Cram 2: Designing Security for a Windows Server2003 Network, Bill Ferguson (ISBN: 978-0-7897-3016-2)
• PHP In A Nutshell, Paul Hudson (ISBN: 978-0-596-10067-4)
• Microsoft Outlook Programming, Sue Mosher (ISBN: 1-55558-286-9)
• Mastering Visual Basic .NET, Evangelos Petroutsos (ISBN: 978-0-7821-2877-7)
• VBScript In A Nutshell, Paul Lomax, Matt Childs, & Ron Petrusha (ISBN: 978-0-596-00488-5)
• VBScript Pocket Reference, Matt Childs, Paul Lomax, & Ron Petrusha (ISBN: 978-0-596-00126-6)
• Linux Pocket Guide, Daniel J. Barrett (ISBN: 978-0-596-00628-0)

No, this is not the beginning of a bad joke. Over the past four days, I have honestly been worried about the welfare and survival of a rubber chicken, a teddy bear, and a stuffed pig. Before you call the people with the strait jackets let me explain.

The name of the rubber chicken is Camilla Corona SDO (@Camilla_SDO), the teddy bear’s name is Fuzz Aldrin (@FuzzAldrin), and the pig is Skye Blue (@SkyeBlue). These three fearless animals are part of a team that have prepared for several months for the launch of BTS-1, or Balloon Transport System. On Sunday morning, around 11A Central Time, their launch vehicle (weather balloon) lifted off with their capsule (foam container) attached, named Inspiration, along with the crew and scientific equipment (cameras). Dozens of people on the ground, as well as on Twitter, followed along with the excitement until a few hours later when the ground track showed the capsule as having landed in the Gulf of Mexico! A few minutes after the disappointment of possibly losing the capsule to the Gulf of Mexico the ground track returned good data showing that the balloon had burst, as expected, and the capsule and crew descending via their parachute over the Texas and Louisiana border near Port Arthur. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as we saw the capsule floating towards a landing near Sabine Lake. What follows however is the reason I have been worried about a rubber chicken, teddy bear, and pig over the last few days. The last good data point received from the capsule showed the altitude at 255 feet and slightly to the east of Sabine Lake near the edge of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge and the Willow Bayou. The BTS-1 Recovery Team raced to the site only to realize that were was no way for them to get into the bayou or across the lake. After several hours of attempting to rescue the capsule and its crew, and even though Camilla Corona SDO, Fuzz Aldrin, and Skye Blue have had wilderness and survival training, the decision to resume the search the following morning had to be made. But even with gaining access to a boat the following day, as well as with the help of the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife, the search is still ongoing, three days later, for the BTS-1 capsule and its intrepid crew.

So let us get serious for a moment. BTS-1 along with its three-member crew is part of the project Mission Raise Space Awareness Balloon (RASB). Over the past few months, through the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (@NASA_SDO), a NASA project to help us understand the Sun’s influence, I had learned about this mission to launch a weather balloon up to the edge of space, almost 100,000 feet, in order to promote science education and space awareness. I soon began to follow the mascot of the NASA SDO project, and mission commander of BTS-1, Camilla Corona SDO. From there I further learned about the rest of the BTS-1 crew including Fuzz Aldrin, the BTS-1 Pilot, who is one of the ambassadors for Bears On Patrol (@BearsOnPatrol). Bears on Patrol is a non- profit organization which offers an amazing service providing police departments with teddy bears to give to small children in traumatic situations. Along with Camilla and Fuzz Aldrin, I also discovered Skye Bleu, Mission Specialist of BTS-1, who is the representative of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), of which I am a member.

You may be wondering at this point, why I have been worried over the past few days about a silly chicken, stuffed bear, and pig. Honestly, it has less to do with the inanimate objects that are onboard the BTS-1 capsule but more to do with what they represent. Numerous individuals have been following the launch of BTS-1, which surely has reached its goal of inspiring future engineers, scientists, and explorers as well as raising awareness of science and space education. In addition, it has shown adults and children alike that reaching the edge of space is truly achievable. In my mind, anything that allows us to highlight space and science education and technology is a winner, especially in light of America’s future plans for aerospace and aeronautics. The day of the launch was truly inspiring for me as I chatted and communicated with numerous individuals with a common interest in space and science. Moreover, social media showed great potential as we all communicated and collaborated in real-time with the recovery team to get them on the right roads and updated ground track information. Through the outcome, there will be lessons learned by the BTS-1 team but overall this mission has already been quite a success!

While the search is still on down in the Louisiana bayous for this white foam container with some cameras and stuffed animals inside, many, including myself, are still holding out hope for BTS-1 and its three-member crew of Camilla Corona SDO, Fuzz Aldrin, and Skye Blue. In addition, let us not forget about the rewards gained from the recovery as well – those amazing camera shots from up near the edge of space! For more information about BTS-1, its crew and their organizations please visit the links below.  And for future updates on the mission, including the recovery, follow the mission blog at http://www.bearsonpatrol.org/space/.

Ad Astra Per Aspera!

Bears On Patrol
http://www.twitter.com/BearsOnPatrol
http://www.bearsonpatrol.org

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
http://www.twitter.com/NASA_SDO
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/spaceweather/

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
http://www.twitter.com/AIAA_News
http://www.aiaa.org

A few weeks ago I saw a message on Twitter from Peter Taylor, aka @TheLazyPM, offering his book The Lazy Project Manager for free on Amazon.com.  Not being able to pass up anything that’s free, let alone a book on the topic of project management, I went to “purchase” it on Amazon.  Unfortunately, it turned out that Amazon has two stores, one in the UK and one in the US and the one in the US hadn’t gone free yet.  But after hearing about the problem Peter was gracious enough to e-mail me a PDF copy of his book which I just finished reading today and what an enjoyable project management book it was!

Now just because the title of the book has the word lazy in it don’t take that too literally.  What is truly meant is ‘productive laziness’ or doing things the smart and effective way so you’re not running around yelling “the sky is falling” every afternoon!  As someone who is always looking for ways to increase both my, and my team’s, efficiency this book hit right at home.  For me it only makes sense to truly believe the old adage of “work smarter, not harder”.  And the smarter you can work as a project manager, the lazier you can be.  On my quest as a lazy Project Manager in Training there were ten takeaways I learned through The Lazy Project Manager.

1. During the initiation and closeout of a project is when a lazy Project Manager has to work the hardest but this sets you up to be a good lazy PM during the execution of the project.
2. Always stay in front.  From the moment you start on the project you need to look the part and act the part of an effective project manager.
3. Know your project sponsor like they were your best friend and ensure you know what they want from you as the PM.
4. Scope changes and project creep will happen but the lazy PM will use a proven change process to keep the creep in check.
5. Ensure effective communication that best fits the situation.  Stop e-mailing and go have a conversation!
6. Have fun!  Seriously!  Oh, laugh and smile too!
7. Those risks and issues that get put into logs and registers will actually occur so stay calm when they do while you process the issue, delegate if possible, and deal with the problem.
8. Be the best project team that you can be!  Or at least get the best project team that you can.
9. Don’t necessarily have an open door policy but instead have open and honest communication with your project team.
10. Just like it ain’t over until the fat lady sings so too the project isn’t over until it’s over.  Go through those lessons learned reviews but also share those lessons too.

But don’t be truly lazy.  What you see here is only .000004% of the knowledge you’ll gain by reading this book.  Go to Amazon right now and buy The Lazy Project Manager for yourself.  It’s definitely a book you’ll want to keep in your PM library!

On a final note, this is day two of the thirty-day blogging challenge I’m participating in thanks to @nikkipilkington.  Today’s “challenge” was to write a “top tips” blog entry which I figure I kinda met the goals of.  Any comments or feedback on this blog post are most welcome!