Mr. Loiacono's tenure in the Earth Sciences Directorate began as project engineer for developing the Galileo Probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer that measured the composition of Jupiter's atmosphere in 1997, and the Cassini/Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer instrument that will orbit Saturn and measure its extended atmosphere in 2004. In 1989, Mr. Loiacono lead the development and integration of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument to continue the measurement of ozone in the Earth's Stratosphere and ozone depletion at the earth's poles. He played a key role in leading the TOMS instrument development and the technical team in integrating the TOMS instrument on the Russian Meteor-3 Spacecraft, and launching it from Plesetsk Kosmodrome, USSR in 1991.

Following the mission, NASA sent Mr. Loiacono to California to work in-plant on developing TOMS instruments that would later be launched on the Earth Probe Spacecraft and Japanese ADEOS Spacecraft. In 1993, Mr. Loiacono left the Earth Sciences Directorate and was hired into the Space Sciences Directorate as the Deputy Experiment Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS) in the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics. STIS was installed into the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997, and amongst its findings has been the discovery of numerous Black Holes. Following the HST / STIS launch in 1997, and prior to his arrival on the Aura Mission, the NASA / GSFC Systems, Technology and Advanced Concepts Directorate hired Mr. Loiacono as the Senior Systems Engineer for the development of the Advanced Land Imager on the Earth Orbiter-1 Spacecraft.

Mr. Loiacono received his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from The Catholic University of America, attended University of Maryland for Masters in Electrical Engineering and George Washington University for Masters in Engineering Management. Mr. Loiacono was selected into the very first technical class of the NASA / GSFC Program Management Development Emprise (PMDE) program in 1990. He was awarded NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal in recognition of his technical leadership and engineering excellence in the design, development and launch of the Meteor-3/TOMS mission, and the Civil Service Excellence Award for his role in the development of the HST / STIS instrument. He was instrumental in founding a successful software and electrical engineering company. Prior to arriving at NASA / GSFC, Mr. Loiacono was employed by The National Institutes of Health in the development of high resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment and techniques, now called Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Then our feature speaker, John Loiacono, Deputy Project Manager of the EOS Aura Project, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center was introduced. Not only had Mr. Loiacono spent the day traveling in the awful weather, he had carried with him a 3 foot long model of the Aura Satellite. He gave his talk about the Aura Project and the project's complexity and challenges. Afterward, he answered many question for the audience. It was an excellent experience for us non “rocket scientists” to understand why such a satellite is needed as well as how it works.

• Build costs into your project for periodic face-to-face meetings with all members present to establish trust and create momentum. Encourage active participation from the executive sponsor.
• Manage by deliverables; timely feedback is critical.
• An agenda is an effective meeting metaphor as it keeps the attention of the team. Use a "Parking Lot" for resolving issues off-line.
• Be sensitive to cultural differences. Refer to "The Cultural Dimension of International Business (4th Edition)" by Gary P. Ferraro
• Once one overcomes the technology constraints and learning curves, management needs to focus on resolving both organizational and social issues that may surface.
• There are different management skills required in leading virtual teams; one must be process oriented (creating more rigid structures and routines), foster self- managing teams and develop ways to monitor performance remotely.

Learn how to:

• Set up your planning guidelines in MS Project
• Enter work breakdown structure information
• Set up project and resource calendars
• Assign resources to your project and tasks
• Fine tune your schedule to meet project constraints and resolve conflicts
• Baseline the project planning information
• Track your project by updating with actual information
• Review progress and variance information

• Know what you want to do
• Have an Executive Angel
• Interview the Right People
• Negotiate the contract
• Identify the constraints, dependencies
• Dedicate full-time staff
• Maintain documentation
• Spend time understanding and determining a make or buy decision

• Document and disseminate a communication plan to the team. A communication matrix, part of the plan, matches the various types of information with the appropriate audiences.
• It is also important to produce a stakeholder management matrix. Identify each stakeholder related to the potential impact to the project and the level of support required. Determine appropriate contact frequency and primary contact method for each (group) stakeholder.
• Requirements need to be solidified before an RFP is distributed to vendors.
• Multi-tasking and matrix organization both present challenges for maintaining a dedicated staff on a project.
• It is difficult to reserve client personnel on a full time basis on a project. One way is to ensure this is to require that the SOW contain a section on "Client Responsibilities".
• Documentation is key to asset management and to the reuse of intellectual capital. Customers often do not write documentation requirements into the contract. There is often no quality plan to enforce documentation
• Identify your critical success factors in the contract as a yardstick for measuring project success.
• Encourage a contingency fund from the client to manage unknown unknowns. The risk plan manages the known unknowns.

Learn how to:

• Set up your planning guidelines in MS Project
• Enter work breakdown structure information
• Set up project and resource calendars
• Assign resources to your project and tasks
• Fine tune your schedule to meet project constraints and resolve conflicts
• Baseline the project planning information
• Track your project by updating with actual information
• Review progress and variance information

• Project Initiation: Stakeholder analysis, proposals, communication maps and plans
• Project Planning: Requirements gathering, WBS, schedule, budgeting, critical path method (CPM), risk planning
• Project Execution: Brainstorming, product reviews
• Controlling: Status reports, change requests, issue and risk logs, Earned Value Analysis (EVA)
• Closing: Post implementation reports

Organizations form project offices for different reasons.

• Improve project success rates
• Standardize practices
• Single point of contact for PM's
• Address project failures

• Maintain consistent methodology by providing common tools and processes
• Train, mentor and consult
• Manage change and improve use of best practices
• Take ownership over project delivery
• Provide management visibility through reporting and deploying consistent metrics
• Communicate and validate compliance to company standards
• Assess project health through Quality Assurance Reviews
• Interlock with accounting processes to provide real-time financial reporting, e.g. Sarbones Oakley Act

• Environmental - structure PMO to be closely aligned with Corporate culture
• Geographic - globalization increases the importance of PMO as "communicator"
• Start small - "few, focused and simple"
• Project Management Maturity level
• Sponsorship/Commitment
• Enlist support from senior management
• Develop a business case with metrics to monitor progress
• Recruit an executive sponsor who approves a program charter
• Formalize the reporting structure

• Have right people on the project, including qualified Project Manager
• Don't hesitate to remove team members where the fit doesn't work.
• Develop good relationships and open communication.
• Draft a Quality Plan with -
  • Clearly defined roles & responsibilities
  • List of deliverables
  • Clear & concise scope
  • Streamlined review & change management processes
• Hold formalized, face-to-face, inclusive Kick-Off Meeting.
• Paint the "BIG PICTURE" for all team members.
• Hold Methodology Adoption or Partnering Workshop.
• Establish an advocate for process.
• Focus on success factors.
• Establish metrics EARLY.
• Make sure there is regular access to subject experts.
• Have regularly scheduled face-to-face progress (status) meetings.

Other lessons learned regarding "Managing Change":

Get the right people involved with writing the Scope of Work, particularly the Project Manager.

Create a Change Management Plan, which includes an agreed upon change control process that involves impact assessments.

Involve all stakeholders with the impact assessments.

Make sure you document the baseline: One must know the "as is" in order to proceed to the "to be."

Document all changes, even the ones that do not cost any money, and do this documentation immediately when a change is made or, if possible, when the change is proposed.

Make sure everyone is open and honest about changes.

Consider a change request that exceeds eight hours to be a change in itself.

Communicate project metrics to stakeholders on a regular basis. Microsoft Projects with earned value calculations and color-coded charts (green-OK, amber-getting into trouble, red-in serious trouble) are effective communication tools.

Learn how to:

• Set up your planning guidelines in MS Project
• Enter work breakdown structure information
• Set up project and resource calendars
• Assign resources to your project and tasks
• Fine tune your schedule to meet project constraints and resolve conflicts
• Baseline the project planning information
• Track your project by updating with actual information
• Review progress and variance information

• Nine key process areas
• Project lifecycle phases
• Project manager's soft skills
• Project management tools and techniques (including templates)
• PM related technology and software

And Jennifer raffling off several IIL products during the meeting.

And our Career Corner was hosted by Matt Arnold and Paul Smith of RJS Consulting, Stamford, CT.

• Develop Risk Management Plan at beginning of project with client & revisit it throughout project (identify risks and how they may be eliminated, minimized & shared)
• Develop Contingency Plan with client
• Break large projects into small projects
• Beware of over commitments
• Have independent review of commitments
• Completely educate client
• Summarize results of meetings and confirm understanding of results
• Periodically/constantly communicate progress & value with client
• Be proactive about potential changes in project staff

Here are some of the tips on how to motivate your team that came out of our Breakfast Roundtable:

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate
2. Track stakeholder's expectations AND share them with your team
3. Have face-to-face communication as much as practical
4. Collaborate and keep your team involved
5. Keep work challenging
6. Celebrate successes
7. Obtain feedback
8. Seek opportunities to create fun