1. Lessons Learned and Earned Value Management System Assessment
Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
GLAST Large Area Telescope:
Lowell A. Klaisner
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Project Manager
Lessons Learned and Earned Value Management System Assessment

2. Background Pathfinder project
First flight instrument integrated at SLAC
Most of the staff at SLAC were unfamiliar with the effort required to meet space instrumentation requirements
Challenging project
Largest silicon detector, 800K channels
Limited bandwidth to ground
Event processing on board
Space qualifying state of the art instrumentation
Rigorous requirements of space instrumentation
Low power
Withstand launch loads
Vacuum
Challenging thermal environment
Reliability

3. EVMS Assessment
The EVMS system could not anticipate problems that arose from insufficient engineering in critical areas early in the project and showed up in environmental testing as the project moved into the flight hardware fabrication phase
The EVMS system did not track earned value for work being done by foreign partners on independent budgets (eg the work in Italy supported by INFN and ASI)
The GLAST mission office exercised rigorous control of the requirements while the Office of Science exercised rigorous control of the funding which limited ability to respond to cost growth and schedule stretch out

4. Tracker example of anomaly response
Technical Issue Tracker (Past Year)
Root Cause
Incurred Delay
(months)
Bias circuit design error and coupon plating problems.
Design Problem
MCM and cable termination resistors.
MCM-sidewall clearance issues. 1
Pitch-adapter flex circuit trace cracking.
Process Problem
Cable-closeout short circuit.
Encapsulation of wire bonds on heavy trays.
Bonding of Kapton bias circuits to tungsten. 3
Tracker-Grid interface fastener failure and alignment issues.
Design and Process Problem 9
MCM encapsulation delamination.
PWB short circuits.
ASI funding problems.
Funding Problem
Conformal coating workmanship.
Flex-circuit cable via problems.
Flex-circuit cable workmanship problems.

5. Lessons Learned
The Joint Oversight Group is too removed to resolve schedule and funding issues for the project
When a DOE laboratory takes on a project in a new discipline such as GLAST, extra effort is required at the beginning to assure that the scope of the project is well understood.
Also, the new infrastructure that is required needs to be identified and adequately planned
Facilities
Staffing – particularly special expertise required
Management staffing, systems and procedures
The DOE does not have the technical staff, QA support, management support, and funding flexibility that are available from the GLAST Mission Office
In particular, lack of funding flexibility limited the DOE’s ability to assist in identifying the issues and provide adequate response
The DOE TEC was defined before the project was adequately engineered
GLAST predates PED funds

6. Path Forward
SLAC now has the facilities in place to integrate a space instrument
Key staff are in place to execute future space-based instrumentation projects
In particular, a strong data acquisition system staff is in place with experience with space hardware and software
The Kavli institute is attracting renown astro-physicists
Executing key science with GLAST
Planning and executing future astro-physics projects.