1. NASA Engineering Network
Sharing Knowledge Across
NASA’s Engineering Community
Manson Yew
February 6, 2006

2. Introduction to the NASA Engineering Network
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3. Introduction to the NASA Engineering Network
• …fact is, there is a lot of perspiration involved in the hard work of
NASA Engineering
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4. Introduction to the NASA Engineering Network
• Every engineer needs access to all NASA engineering
knowledge
Captures
Knowledge
Facilitates
Creation of Organizes and
Knowledge Disseminates
Knowledge
Enables
Reuse of
Knowledge
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5. Introduction to the NASA Engineering Network
• The Office of the Chief Engineer created the
NASA Engineering Network to be a robust,
flexible knowledge management system that
• networks users to NASA’s vast
knowledge resources, both documented
and tacit
• provides a multi-purpose community
management tool, task management tool,
and lessons learned tool
• allows for managing and sharing of
discipline standards, requirements and
processes with a minimum of labor
• NEN integrates a content management
system, portal, search engine, and
engineering community management system
in support of engineering discipline
communities and NASA lessons learned
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6. Key Knowledge Resource – NASA Lessons Learned
• 1,602 fully vetted Lessons
Learned going back to 1972
• Managed by Lessons Learned
Steering Committee with
representation from all 10
NASA Centers
• Pro: represents NASA’s
highest validity of reusable
knowledge
• Con: not a complete body of
NASA knowledge
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7. Key Knowledge Resource -- Engineering Databases
• NASA has a wealth of data
management systems, External Audiences
General Public
NASA NASA NASA
problem reporting and ContractorsPartners
Employees
Scientists StudentsEducators
& Researchers Kids & Teachers
&
Industry
Press
& Media
corrective action systems, Content Delivery1 Accessibility2Communications3
www.nasa.gov
document management Marsrover
Spaceflight
Caching Download
Site X
StreamingSearch Web Managed Portal
Site Y
systems, technical report Network Services
www.nasa.gov
Services Search &
ISN
Public
Engine
Portal App’sApplications
Subscriptions
Collaboration
Portlet Mgmt
Management
Standard Services
Pod casting
On Demand
Aggregation
Vignette Managed Applications
Collections
& Contacts
Messaging
Marsrover
Captioning
Java Apps
Spidering
Shopping
Tailoring
Profiling
Forums
Custom
Access
Instant
systems
Closed
& Polls
Images
Spaceflight
Web
Other
File &
Apps
Apps
Cart
Live
Security
Site X
Privacy
Site Y
Hosting
• Pro: extensive set of NASA Information & Publishing Services4 Management Services5
knowledge Enterprise
Reporting &
SMS Portal CMS Portal System Business
• Con: validity issues, context Syndication Mgmt Content Management System
Workflow Management Tools
Event, Change
Log Analysis
Performance
Management
RDF & Other
Notification
Availability
Repository
Monitoring
Publishing
Publishing
Bandwidth
Publishing
Outbound
Authoring
Business
API & GUI
Workflow
Metadata
Security,
Reports
Inbound
Process
Reports
Agents,
Privacy
issues, seemingly never-
Model
HTML
ending number of db’s
Security Operations NASA NASA Mgmt. and NASA
Mgmt. & Support Centers Support Offices Missions
Management & Internal Customers
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8. Key Knowledge Resource – Subject Matter Experts
• NASA employs over 46,000
civil servant and contractor
engineers representing some
of the nation’s best and most
educated intellectual resources
• Pro: our best knowledge
resource
• Con: not easily discovered,
have something better to do
than sit around waiting for your
questions
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9. Industry Benchmarking
• Formal benchmarking meetings conducted with the following organizations
have led to NEN architecture as recognized best practice
• In addition, meta-analysis of published case studies and informal
benchmarking also contributed to key architectural decisions and choices
The Aerospace Corporation Department of Commerce
US Army Rand Corporation
MITRE EPRI
Lockheed Martin Space Systems JHU/Applied Physics Lab
Raytheon Department of Homeland Security
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Department of Energy
Intel Procter and Gamble
Boeing Canoga Park Rolls Royce Aerospace
Harvard University Ball Aerospace
Learning Innovations Laboratory
Australian Taxation Office
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10. Functional Architecture of NEN
Center Lessons Learned NASA Lessons Learned Interagency/Aerospace Lessons Learned
Agency-wide CAN system,
New Engineering resources
Service
Community Portals Enhancement
Expertise
Collaborative Tools
Locator (POPS)
(NX, Jabber)
Competency ICE
Management System,
NISE LDAP, WIMS Metasearch
Feedback Policies and
Training
Procedures
Advanced Feedback
Engineering
Document and Data Repositories Tools
NEN Existing Resources
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11. Finding Solutions
Search across multiple repositories.
Faceted navigation
to drill down into results
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12. Finding Solutions (cont.)
Structures NEN Community
NEN searches may lead to
community of expert
practitioners
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13. Finding Solutions (cont.)
NEN communities provide a variety of expert locator tools
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14. Disseminating Lessons and Best Practices
Discussions on key
topic areas
Greybeards’ advice
Key community documents
Engineering standards
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15. Disseminating Lessons and Best Practices (cont.)
Push relevant
lessons learned to
communities
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16. Capturing and Sharing Lessons
Multiple entries to
the same
submission form
and workflow
controlled lessons
learned process
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17. Policy Makers Embedding Lessons into Processes
NASA System Engineering
Handbook rewrite team using
NEN to collaborate among
60+ subject matter experts
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18. Functional Architecture of NEN
Center Lessons Learned NASA Lessons Learned Interagency/Aerospace Lessons Learned
Agency-wide CAN system,
New Engineering resources
Service
Community Portals Enhancement
Expertise
Collaborative Tools
Locator (POPS)
(NX, Jabber)
Competency ICE
Management System,
NISE LDAP, WIMS Metasearch
Feedback Policies and
Training
Procedures
Advanced Feedback
Engineering
Document and Data Repositories Tools
NEN Existing Resources
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19. More to Come
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20. More to Come (cont.)
• 7 Communities in operation
• 24 Engineering Disciplines
identified
• Aligned with Tech Fellows
program
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21. More to Come
• Indexed 28 repositories, target
43 repositories
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22. More to Come (cont.)
• Lessons Learned Conference
Nov. 2007
• Lessons capture tools, aids,
and resources
• Capture of key knowledge and
project system engineering
artifacts in addition to formal
lessons learned
• Embedding lessons into
processes
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23. For More Information
• Visit our booth for a live demonstration
• Manson Yew, (818) 354-4528, myew@jpl.nasa.gov
• Gena Henderson, (321) 867-4261,
Gena.M.Henderson@nasa.gov
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