Mission to Mars

In this highly-participatory session, Harvard Business School Associate Prof. Alan MacCormack asks you to evaluate the reasons for the failure of two successive missions to Mars that were launched under NASA’s "Faster, Better, Cheaper" program -- and why the program didn't work. This case, which MacCormack co-wrote with Jay Wynn, will help you better understand the relationships between risk, budget, and schedule in the development of complex technology-based projects. Mission to Mars examines changes the space agency made that followed a faster, simpler approach to program design.

From lessons learned on innovation, product development, project management, risk assessment and risk management by NASA – and by you during this session – you’ll discover approaches that will help you effectively design and measure complex projects and organizations more effectively.

This session will open with participants breaking out into small workgroups to discuss the case and its accompanying study questions, which you’ll get on Monday morning. Then Professor MacCormack will reveal how NASA’s changes at the program level enabled it to capture learning that is useful to future missions.