Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

USE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
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From the beginning, each center was established in order to meet unique challenges
in fulfilling the mission of the Agency. Over time, each center established its own unique
competencies, culture, organizational structure, and technical infrastructures. The centers ’
unique technical capabilities and foci of their research and development have served the
Agency ’s ambitious purpose of pursuing complex human and robotic space exploration
projects. Centers have established worldwide reputations in their own unique areas for
their technical excellence. Over time, however, this has resulted in “ stove- piped ” information
systems and organizational processes at each center and for different functional needs. Each
functional area built their legacy systems in order to meet their idiosyncratic needs. Furthermore,
similar capabilities and knowledge resources were established in different centers, resulting in
redundant investment. Different administrative and organizational procedures have made
it difficult for the individuals within NASA to identify knowledge resources and capabilities
distributed throughout the Agency. Even if they identify the potentially useful knowledge
resources, differences in organizational rules, accounting standards, and information technology
have made it difficult to collaborate across the center boundaries. As documented
in a Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report, the lack of integrated information
systems and organizational practices caused major challenges in coordination and
control across the Agency.
To address these challenges, NASA began working on an integrated fi nancial management
system in 1987 after the GAO found that NASA’s accounting and fi nancial information systems
“ constitute a material weakness of the Agency. ” The attempt to design and implement
an agency - wide integrated system, officially named NASA Accounting and Financial
Information Systems (NAFIS), failed after eight years and more than $ 90 million. After
the failure of the NAFIS project, NASA decided to implement a “ commercial off - the - shelf ”
(COTS) software system. In 1995, NASA officially launched the first iteration of the
IFMP and hired KMPG Peat Marwick to customize a system that they had implemented
elsewhere and implement it. Yet, NASA and KPMG agreed to cease the work in early
2000 as KPMG continued to fail to meet the major milestones.
In February 2000, NASA started its third attempt to integrate its fi nancial management
systems. NASA established an Integrated Financial Management Program (IFMP) and
decided to implement the industry - leading product SAP and hired Andersen Consulting
and IBM as the technical implementation and change agent consulting fi rms, respectively.
NASA appointed new leadership of the project in February 2000 and redesigned the
project. Marshall Space Center was selected as the lead center where most technical implementation
teams are based, and Glenn Research Center was chosen as the first phase site.
The vision of the IFMP program is to build a modern, leading edge business system that
will provide the management information needed for mission success, meet the information
needs of internal and external customers, support compliance with external regulatory
guidance, and promote standardization and integration of business processes and systems
across NASA. Specifically, the IFMP aims at delivering five business objectives:
◆ Provide timely, consistent and reliable information for management decisions;
◆ Improve NASA’s accountability and enable full cost management;
◆ Achieve effi ciencies and operate effectively;
◆ Exchange information with customers and stakeholders;
◆ Attract and retain a world - class workforce.