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National Aeronautics Space Administration

NSC Knowledge Now Communities of Practice

Mike Lipka

November 6, 2013

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We are the NASA Safety Center

Established in 2006 to support the safety and mission

assurance (SMA) requirements of NASA's portfolio of

programs and projects

– Safety: Operational safety and health

– Mission Assurance: System safety, reliability & maintainability,

software assurance, quality engineering, aviation safety

Focused on developing people, processes and tools for

the achievement of NASA's strategic goals

Key functions

– Mishap investigation support

– Technical excellence training

– Program and facility audits

– Knowledge management tools and processes

HQ function, located at Glenn Research Center

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NASA Safety & Mission Assurance Culture

Safety concerns were raised as a result of

Challenger, Columbia and other independent

agency mishap assessments

“The [Columbia Accident

Investigation] Board

concludes that NASA’s

current organization does

not provide effective

checks and balances,

does not have an

independent safety

program and has not

demonstrated the

characteristics of a

learning organization.”

- Synopsis, p.12

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SMA KM Strategic Objective

Create a continuous learning culture within

Safety and Mission Assurance to support the

successful execution of all NASA programs

1. Identify and facilitate knowledge sharing opportunities

2. Develop knowledge sharing tools and processes

3. Educate SMA practitioners

4. Embed KM as an organizational strength

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What We Strive to Achieve

“First-stop shopping” for SMA professionals

Develop and capture expertise in SMA technical

disciplines

Identify opportunities to share appropriate knowledge

and experience between NSC Offices- Mishap

Investigation Teams, Audit and Assessments, and

Technical Experts

Risk avoidance

Cost avoidance

An environment of Trust- Transparency- Open agenda

Not repeating mishaps, avoiding obsolescence,

constantly evolving

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SMA Knowledge Challenges

NASA has a highly skilled workforce where complex

knowledge is not easily gained or replaced

We remember the “what, when and how” but not the

“why” - the context or rationale of what we do

We sometimes duplicate efforts (and errors) because

we are too "Center/Program/Project- centric”

SMA professionals learn on the job due to a lack of

external SMA formal education programs

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Why Use Communities of Practice?

Avoid re-work and ensure business continuity by

accessing documents and information already

assembled and completed

Preserve “organizational memory”

Who did the work?

What was completed/accomplished?

When was the work done?

Where is it located?

Why and how did we do the work? Context

“One-stop shopping”

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Knowledge Now Communities of Practice

Using commercial version of the Air Force Knowledge Now

communities of practice (CoPs) system developed by Triune

Secure online CoPs cleared for SBU content- Rated as high.

Available Agency-wide

Inventory: Over 950+ CoPs and 8,200+ members

Open to Civil Servants, Contractors, External Partners

12GB capacity

Supports all doc types- video, audio, pictures

Easily configurable

Online Help wiki and Help Desk

Available via e-Authentication; must have a NASA ID

Easy to request

https://nsckn.nasa.gov/

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Document

management system

w/ permissions

Discussion forums and

blogs

Wikis

Members listing

Community calendar

Alerts

Knowledge Now Key Features

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Search and discovery

Surveys and

questionnaires

Action Item tracker

Links

Drop and drag

configuration

Metrics

https://nsckn.nasa.gov/

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Document Folder Permissions: The NSC CoP

All NSC Civil Servants and Contactors can view

– Marketing

– NSC CoP Implementation Plan

– Organizational Charts

– Photos and videos

– Presentations

Only NSC Civil Servants can view

– NSC Key Activities Reports

– Office Reviews

– Retreats

– Trip Reports

Only NSC Leadership can view

– Budget

Permissions are at the

folder level only

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NSC CoPs: SMA Technical Disciplines

System Safety- A disciplined, systematic approach to identifying, analyzing,

and controlling system hazards that can impact human health, the

environment, or the mission itself.

Reliability & Maintainability- Design and review activities that improve

systems’ reliability during their missions while minimizing system downtime for

maintenance. Provides confidence system and its components will function

when required.

Quality Engineering- Analysis, principles and practices used to demonstrate

that a system suits its purpose and complies with relevant requirements.

Software Assurance- Activities that ensure software life cycle processes and

products conform to requirements, standards and procedures. This includes

quality, safety, reliability, verification and validation, and independent

verification and validation of software.

Operational Safety- Preventing operations-related safety hazards to assure

mission success and to protect personnel and the public, protect the

environment, protect aircraft/spacecraft/payloads, and protect facilities,

property and equipment.

Aviation Safety- Processes and practices aimed at eliminating or mitigating

hazards in aviation to prevent injury to personnel or damage to aircraft and

other hardware.

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Operational Safety Community of Practice

OTJ

Resources

Documents SME K

Capture

Industry

expertise

News

Prof

Orgs

Events NASA Policy

Gov’t

Expertise

Industry

expertise

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INFORM YOURSELF

nsc.nasa.gov

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SMA Safety Day Planning CoP

Documents

Agency

Points of

Contact

Center Web

Pages

Recommended

Event Speakers

Center Event

Pages

Events

OTJ

Resources

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Safety Days Event Planning CoP

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Every Center hosts a

Safety Days event and

faces similar challenges

– Reduced budget

– Reduced personnel

– Keep employees interested

Identified event planning

and logistics leading

practices

Meet virtually to tell stories

and exchange experiences

Goal: Embed knowledge

management in work

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CoP Implementation Plan

– Knowledge Inventory

– Configuration Plan

– Communication Plan

– Quarterly Governance

– Operating Standards

Some Lessons Learned

– Less is more

– Consolidate communications

– Serve as first stop knowledge

resource- “Mini portal”

– Collaboration is cumbersome

– The 1% rule- 99% lurk

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Managing the Change and Lessons Learned

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DISCUSSION